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Summary. Harvard Business School’s Christensen teaches aspiring MBAs how to apply management and innovation theories to build stronger companies. But he also believes that these models can help people lead better lives. In this article, he explains how, exploring questions everyone needs to ask: How can I be happy in my career? How can I be sure that my relationship with my family is an enduring source of happiness? And how can I live my life with integrity (正直)?

The answer to the first question comes from Frederick Herzberg’s assertion that the most powerful motivator isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute, and be recognized (认可). That’s why management, if practiced well, can be the noblest (最高贵的) of occupations; no others offer as many ways to help people find those opportunities. It isn’t about buying, selling, and investing in companies, as many think.

The principles of resource allocation can help people attain happiness at home. If not managed masterfully, what emerges from a firm’s resource allocation process can be very different from the strategy management intended to follow. That’s true in life too: If you’re not guided by a clear sense of purpose, you’re likely to fritter away (浪费) your time and energy on obtaining the most tangible (有型的，切实的), short-term signs of achievement, not what’s really important to you.

And just as a focus on marginal costs can cause bad corporate decisions, it can lead people astray (误入歧途地；迷途的). The marginal cost of doing something wrong “just this once” always seems alluringly (诱人地；妩媚地) low. You don’t see the end result to which that path leads. The key is to define what you stand for and draw the line in a safe place.

Editor’s Note: When the members of the class of 2010 entered business school, the economy was strong and their post-graduation ambitions could be limitless (无限制的). Just a few weeks later, the economy went into a tailspin ( 混乱；旋尾降落). They’ve spent the past two years recalibrating their worldview and their definition of success.

The students seem highly aware of how the world has changed (as the sampling of views in this article shows). In the spring, Harvard Business School’s graduating class asked HBS professor Clay Christensen to address (演讲，致辞) them—but not on how to apply his principles and thinking to their post-HBS careers. The students wanted to know how to apply them to their personal lives. He shared with them a set of guidelines that have helped him find meaning in his own life. Though Christensen’s thinking comes from his deep religious faith (宗教信仰), we believe that these are strategies anyone can use. And so we asked him to share them with the readers of HBR.

See you tomorrow