Making a Life, Making a Living: Reclaiming Your Purpose and Passion in Business and in Life [Paperback]

Mark Albion (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2000

Harvard Business School professor and successful entrepreneur Mark Albion had it all, but not enough to satisfy his body and soul. So he did the unthinkable and started over, dedicating his passions to a better self. This breakthrough book that examines how readers can pursue their dreams in life, both financially and spiritually, is now in paperback.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Albion, who gave up a teaching post at Harvard Business School and now publishes a monthly newsletter called "Making a Life," has spent the last 11 years preaching that personal integrity is the real ticket to prosperity. He cites a study that tracked the careers of 1500 business school graduates. In 1960, the year they graduated, all but 255 said they wanted to make money first in order to do what they really wanted later on; the remainder decided to do what they loved in hopes that money would follow. Of the 101 who became millionaires by 1980, only one belonged to the former group. In chapters with titles such as "Don't Let Success Stand in the Way of Opportunity," "Bring Your Values to Work" and "Live a Life, Not a Resume," Albion profiles a range of entrepreneurs and high-level employees. His emphasis is on the disparate paths these people took to achieve a sense of purpose and meaning in work that carried over into their personal lives. There's Elliot Hoffman, who built the San Francisco-based cafe Just Desserts from a single birthday cake into one of the city's most profitable and socially responsible businesses. And there's Albion's most personal story, that of his mother, which frames the entire book. In 1986, she was diagnosed with cancer, and her doctor indicated she would be lucky to live six months. Now in her 70s, she continues to head the successful manufacturing company she began in 1978. Albion's book powerfully illustrates what can be accomplished when, in our work lives, we use our heads while following our hearts. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Albion was a Harvard marketing professor for 20 years, and in the 1980s he consulted for big-name consumer brands and wrote several books on advertising. But he grew disillusioned with the quest for "money, power, and fame" and left Harvard. He founded You & Co., a recruiting firm that matches MBAs and socially responsible companies, and cofounded Students for Responsible Business, which now has branches at more than 100 business schools. Albion continues to consult; now his expertise is "humanistic marketing," and he commands fees of up to $6,000 a day. He also speaks regularly at major business schools and publishes an online newsletter devoted to business ethics, corporate responsibility, and finding meaning in work, which reaches 50,000 readers. Here, he sets down his philosophy by spelling out 12 guidelines that address four major questions: Who are you? What do you want? What can you do? and Where can you go? Albion answers those questions using dozens of inspirational stories and aphorisms from sages as diverse as Mother Teresa and Lily Tomlin. David Rouse --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Business Plus (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446676519
• ISBN-13: 978-0446676519
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #253,534 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

As I've pursued a career these last 30 years, the essential question for me has been: "How can I be a Marxist and still own a Jacuzzi?"

My dream has been that I and the next generation of business leaders ' the generation our planet has been waiting for ' would find a way to have a significant impact on making the world a better place for all.

You see, I never really lost the ideals of the '60s. I just wanted material comforts, too. While I detested Western capitalism ' witnessed by my 15-month backpack around the world after college ' I returned to the West Point of Capitalism and even became a marketing professor there.

I spent nearly 20 years at Harvard Business School. A seven-time social entrepreneur, I left Harvard to develop a community of service-minded MBAs, co-founding Net Impact in 1993. I've made 600+ visits to speak at business schools on five continents, for which Business Week magazine dubbed me ' seriously ' -- 'the savior of B-school souls." I've written seven books, most recently More Than Money: Questions Every MBA Needs to Answer, with the animated movie, "The Good Life Parable: An MBA Meets a Fisherman.

I have two daughters, Amanda (1987) and Nicolette (1991), with my wife, since 1981, Joy. They are happy when I'm happy ("What does Daddy do?"... "I think he types."). I've had some business successes, some failures; we bought a big house, almost lost the big house, but somehow I just kept climbing that ladder of success, wrong by wrong.

In '97 I began the book I first tried to write while backpacking around the world, "Making a Life, Making a Living'," which became a New York Times Business Best Seller in January 2000. The morning I learned of the honor, I told my wife, who responded as any good wife would, "Congratulations, honey. Can you pick Amanda up after ballet today?" Or as Amanda said to me at a 2006 family dinner, "If you won the Nobel prize, daddy, I wouldn't love you any more than I already do."

My Favorite "Accomplishments":

1. Skied from base camp at Mount Everest.
2. Snuck into Pele's beach house when he wasn't there.
3. Viewed the Full Moon inside the Taj Mahal at night.
4. Rode a horse across Afghanistan.
5. Met Jacqueline Kennedy while wearing only a Speedo bathing suit.
6. Dove eye to eye alone with a humpback whale at 120 feet.
7. Hugged by Mother Teresa and Ronald Reagan'not at the same time.

Today, the answer to my 30 year-old question is clear: "We are all angels with one wing, able to fly only when we embrace each other." How do I hope to be remembered? I hope as, "He loved." And my generation remembered? As one that was a leaver not a taker, citizens more than consumers.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring stories; too much success, Harvard, busy-ness August 20, 2000

By S. A. Felton

Format:Audio Cassette

First of all, I would like to compliment the writers of the 32 or so reviews I read of this book before I wrote mine. It was very interesting to read such a wide variety of mostly thoughtful reviews, mostly positive and a few negative. Honestly, I found the negative reviews more akin to some of my own thoughts, simply because I cannot agree with the "everything works out if you just have a positive attitude" slant of this book. I know of people who have refused to sell their ideals to the system, have tried to "follow their bliss," and have not succeeded, and I attribute this as much to the dog-eat-dog mentality of the business world as to their "negativity."

If you are a "mover and a shaker" who wants to find a meaningful way to channel your talents and energies, then I would highly recommend this book to you as inspiration. As other reviewers stated, the book does not delineate specific paths for finding meaning in your work. The author clearly assumes that the reader either has his/her own ideas on what work would be rewarding, and wrote the book to inspire the reader to "go for it" through many fine examples of both men and women who in some cases endured a lot of ups and downs to create the work environment they could love, and to their credit, an equitable work place for their employees. The stories in the book of people who sacrificed profit for employee benefits are very heartening, as are the stories of

people who sacrificed income for "spiritual" satisfaction in their work. And for those who do want help in finding such a path, the author has a web site and organization that might be useful, though it does appear that his service is limited to business leaders, not ordinary workers like most of us!

As others have written, I found myself very put off by the constant mention of what I will call the "H" word, Harvard. The author overuses it, along with the mention of other big name schools, as if he cannot give up the superiority of those institutions and those who attend them. If he had moderated his repetition of cases related to "big-name" schools, along with the glee over the "success" of the people depicted, I would have found the book much more likeable.

To write a book such as this an author would clearly have to question some of what constitutes "success" in the world, yet Mr. Albion neither questions nor seems to have a problem with some of the ridiculous excesses of capitalism, i.e., the compulsion to be "successful," along with the manic busy-ness of so many people, which somehow automatically equates to self-importance and self-worth. Over and over again the people depicted in the book are workaholics who probably have no time to question any of what I consider to be (at least partially) some of the fallacious underpinings of capitalism and busy-ness. However, to each is own, I get worth from questioning, and others derive it from being busy all the time.

I agree with the reviewers who found the quotes by famous, successful people, which are offset in bold on practically every page of the book, to be "too much" and distracting, yet what I found expedient was to ignore them as much as possible the first time I read the book, and then while skimming the book a second time concentrate on them. I found this quite rewarding and I even made a list of many pithy quotes I liked, and I appreciate the research the author did to compile such a useful list. Indeed these often inspiring quotes are as if a book within a book, and best of all, almost all of the people quoted themselves went against the tide to create their own meaning and "success" in life.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Condescending Dribble September 19, 2004

By T. Hiltbrand

Format:Paperback

I found this book to be very condescending in the way that it was written. I listened to the audio cassettes and stopped listening after the first cassette because I felt like I was being talked down to because I had not given up everything in life to go live in a eskimo community or in Africa figthing AIDS in some tribe that lives in the Nigeria.

I completely agree that the path to true happiness is not merely achieving success through becoming rich and famous, but I found it very interesting the examples that he chose for his success stories. For example, in his story of Judy and her business the "White Dog", he portrayed her as being so happy and having achieved such great success through her activism with regards to social issues, but just passed over the fact that she had two unsuccessful marriages and could keep her personal relationships successful.

I feel that the sense of the book is that you have to be involved in these major earth saving causes to find true happiness and I don't agree with that. I believe that you can find true happiness within the walls of your own home just as easily. I also believe that through small and simple things like being kind to others and volunteering in your community that great things are brought about.

I am glad the the author was able to come to some conclusions about how to find happiness in his own life but I felt that the book was very preachy in its approach.

If this book touched others' lives for the better, I think that the author was successful, but it didn't touch mine. In fact, it got on my nerves so much that I had to quit listening to it and felt the desire to write a review to let others know of the condescending airs that it portrays.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Title Says It All! March 13, 2000

By Bob Burg

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Dr. Mark Albion has written a "life-changing" book. That term, though generally inappropriate, is more than appropriate here. He provides anyone who is not ecstatic with their work (job, career) or their life the wisdom to make the changes they desire and live a life of joy, contribution, and significance. "Dr. Mark" does this through a combination of his own wisdom (and he definitely qualifies, having achieved a bounty of success at a very young age, realizing he was still not living his desired meaningful life, and then actually "doing" what he teaches in the book) and the wisdom of a cast of "life-successes" you will relate to and, some of them, even love.

As great as the book is, and as compelling as the individual stories and lessons are, the final chapter is a classic ending. It's actually a surprise twist (I won't ruin it by telling you what it is). Although a couple of hints were given early in the chapter, when it finally hit me, I had to go back to the beginning of the chapter just so that I could re-read it with full knowledge. I believe the story will make you a bit "misty-eyed," and make you think about and re-assess some of the more important relationships in your life.

One other nice surprise - this one regarding the general nature of the book - was in what was not included; I was a bit concerned that this book would be just a bit "anti free-enterprise." I'm a big believer that free-enterprise (capitalism) is, by it's very nature, the most charitable economic system there is. Would this book try to disprove that? Not at all. Dr. Mark and his wisdom-filled friends merely point out that if what you are doing stirs your passion, allows you to make a positive difference in the lives of others, and makes you feel good about yourself, then you really can have it all. You find yourself "Making A Life, Making A Living!"