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One book has transformed how I think about what I do—and why
A friend of mine, for my birthday, got me Warren Bennis’ classic On Becoming a Leader. I thanked him for the book but it sat on Mount Nightstand for five months. Last weekend, on a whim, I picked it up.
Just tore through the thing. Finished it Sunday. A lot of it’s meant for the business class but some of it applies to everyone, storytellers especially. Here are three of Bennis’ best points, arrived at after decades of consultations and scholarship:
1) A purposeful career comes from the full expression of one’s creativity.
Do you allow yourself to pursue the thing you want? A lot of us are our own worst enemy. Even when we overcome ourselves we have to ask: Does our job allow us to do the thing we want? Sometimes the answer is, not exactly. Not fully. But we tell ourselves that’s okay because there are bills to pay and a roof to stay under. Bennis’ point is you will never be happy with your career unless you Do The Thing, that thing that drives your curiosity and creativity. Let it above all guide you.
2) Late in life, the people most satisfied are the ones who did the stuff that scared them.
Bennis is talking about new projects and even new directions for your career. He cites studies of how…
