Omar Usman – 3 Lessons From How Will You Measure Your Life Clayton Christensen

Omar Usman
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In this YouTube video, Omar Osman discusses how to measure one's life and create a positive environment. He gives three lessons from the book How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen: Why are we here, how do we know we're making a difference, and what is meaningful work? He emphasizes the importance of finding a job that challenges one's values and provides a system in place to protect relationships. He also gives advice on how to handle personal decisions and avoid compromise on one's values.

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			Hey, guys. Omar Osman here. Welcome to my
		
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			new YouTube channel. On this channel, I'm going
		
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			to be doing book reviews, but not in
		
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			the traditional way. I'll be doing 3 lessons
		
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			that I've learned from a book in 3
		
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			minutes.
		
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			Today, we're talking about How Will You Measure
		
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			Your Life by Clayton Christensen.
		
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			The basic premise of this book is why
		
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			are we here, and how do we know
		
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			we're making a difference? He split the book
		
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			up into 3 sections, career, relationships, and what
		
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			he calls get out of jail free. Now
		
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			in the first section about careers,
		
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			he talks about why we take certain careers
		
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			or why we go into a certain job.
		
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			And one of the main traps that we
		
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			fall into is taking a job for money.
		
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			And he outlines the fact that money is
		
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			actually a hygiene factor. So So it's an
		
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			environmental factor. It's like what kind of office
		
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			you have, what kind of chair you sit
		
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			in. You know, these types of things, he
		
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			puts money into that category. The problem that
		
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			we have is that we'll take a job
		
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			because of the salary, because of the money,
		
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			and then our lifestyle expands to fill that
		
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			type of income, and then we're stuck. We're
		
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			trapped, and we can't get out. So he
		
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			says we should be looking for more meaningful
		
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			indicators
		
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			as to a job that we'll like. And
		
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			for that, he identifies what meaningful work is.
		
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			So meaningful work is to look at, do
		
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			you agree with the vision? Do you agree
		
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			with the mission? Are you doing work that
		
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			challenges you? Are you doing work that makes
		
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			you think, that makes you feel fulfilled?
		
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			Look for that as the primary motivator. You
		
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			can't ignore the hygiene factors, but make sure
		
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			the underlying theme is something meaningful, something challenging,
		
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			and then look at the money and the
		
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			other things. In the second section, she talks
		
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			about relationships.
		
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			And in relationships, she talks specifically about high
		
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			achievers.
		
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			See, high achievers,
		
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			they tend to do what brings them the
		
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			most benefit with their immediate action. And so
		
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			for a lot of people, that means that
		
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			they end up sacrificing their relationships,
		
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			specifically their family life. Because on a day
		
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			to day basis, things seem okay. Things are
		
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			going fine. There hasn't been a big catastrophe,
		
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			but then, eventually, after 5 years, 10 years,
		
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			or 20 years, things fall apart, and it's
		
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			hard to pinpoint exactly what happened. And he
		
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			says you have to be sure to take
		
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			care of your relationships because at the end
		
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			of your life, that's what you'll value the
		
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			most, is your family and your friends. And
		
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			so one tip that he gives that stood
		
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			out to me was he said, you know,
		
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			have a setup, have a system in place
		
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			that protects the balance of your relationships. For
		
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			example,
		
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			give your spouse
		
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			veto power over your calendar. That's a very
		
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			easy to way to make sure that you
		
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			keep your relationships
		
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			and your career in the proper balance. In
		
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			the 3rd section, he talks it's called Get
		
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			Out of Jill Free, but this section is
		
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			about marginal and full thinking, and this is
		
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			probably one of the biggest takeaways
		
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			that people who have read this book have.
		
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			He gives the example of Blockbuster and Netflix.
		
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			When Netflix first started, they were challenging Blockbuster,
		
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			and Blockbuster looked at it and they said,
		
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			the margins that they're making, the money that
		
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			they're making on these DVD rentals
		
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			it's just not enough to entice us to
		
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			do it. And if we were to do
		
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			it and we were to double down on
		
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			this business model, it would mean that we
		
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			would put our physical stores out of business,
		
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			so there's really no incentive for us to
		
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			do this. We know how that story ended.
		
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			Netflix ended up putting Blockbuster completely out of
		
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			business. And so Christensen says that you have
		
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			to, you know, you have to have an
		
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			an agile mentality,
		
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			that if we were starting from scratch, what
		
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			would we be what would we do? And
		
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			don't be afraid to go down that route.
		
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			But he goes one step further,
		
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			and that is that he applies this marginal
		
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			and full thinking to our personal lives. And
		
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			he says a lot of times we make
		
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			decisions and we'll say things like, you know,
		
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			it's not gonna hurt just this one time,
		
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			or I can do it one time. I
		
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			can do it just this, you know, just
		
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			this time, and there won't be any consequences.
		
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			He says over time, those add up, and
		
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			we don't realize how big the consequences are
		
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			going to be. So even in your personal
		
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			life, make sure that you have a full
		
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			mentality, that you're paying attention to what you're
		
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			doing, and you don't compromise on your values.
		
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			Hope you enjoyed the video. We've got more
		
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			book reviews coming. Make sure you hit subscribe
		
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			and hit the like button. Thanks.