Long before Harvard began teaching Happiness, soon to become the most popular introductory class there, Columbia was offering a course in the Meaning of Life.
"Creativity and Personal Mastery by Srikumar Rao aims at nothing less than to help each student "discover your unique purpose for existence". The "perennially oversubscribed" course is demanding, requiring extensive reading and time-consuming exercises. Now, he has a book covering much of the same material.
It's the Ivy League version of Rick Warren's A Purpose-Driven Life, a book that has sold an astonishing 20 million copies, People have an huge hunger for meaning and purpose in their lives. I've read Rao's book and I think it's quite good. If you want to get full value, be prepared to do the exercises.
Said Professor Rao who is considered a "life-long resource" for his students.
"At business schools, the vast majority of students don't have a clue what they really want to do."
"They're in business school for a number of reasons -- the most important one is economic security, they want to go out and make a ton of money, they want to be in a prestigious company."
However, many are also wary of the long hours and intensely competitive environment typical of post-MBA employers such as investment banks, he notes.
"My basic thesis is that work hours are getting longer and longer and more grueling. But if you don't get up in the morning with your blood singing at the thought of what you do, if you're not really into your life, then you're wasting your life. And life is short."
This can come as a shock to the traditional MBA student, many of whom have progressed seamlessly -- and successfully -- through school, university and the start of their business career.
"Just the thought that someone comes out and puts it so boldly is like getting hit in the face with a wet fish," Rao says. "They off and think about it, and they say: 'By golly, he's right!'"
