{"id":7725,"date":"2022-06-02T10:10:09","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T08:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/escp.eu\/thechoice\/?p=7725"},"modified":"2023-02-17T16:50:29","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T14:50:29","slug":"leadership-and-life-in-the-age-of-longevity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/escp.eu\/thechoice\/choose-to-lead\/leadership-and-life-in-the-age-of-longevity\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership and life in the age of longevity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As I\u2019m preparing this article for The Choice, it\u2019s the middle of the clay court part of the tennis season – a sport I love -, which will culminate in the French Open that Rafael Nadal has won a record 13 times<\/mark>, and I find a very interesting piece about tennis and setting ourselves goals to succeed in life<\/a>. Sophie Guignard finishes her article with this: \u201cSometimes, joy is the right choice. Nadal, Federer, and Djokovic must surely know something about that.\u201d <\/em>I am mentioning this because it is very much connected with what I have written in this contribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should life feel like playing a five-setter on clay against Rafael Nadal?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When I was starting my professional career, in the 80’s, it was very popular to plan to work very hard and hopefully earn a lot of money so you could achieve financial independence when you become 40 or 50 years old. The idea was to suffer at the beginning to enjoy the second half of your life.<\/strong> I have known many people and many executives developing complicated lives and leadership styles to achieve this plan for themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning of my career, I personally liked the idea of trying to achieve some type of financial independence early in life. I saw it as a source of freedom. But what I didn’t really like was the hurting part. I never accepted the idea of suffering as a student, or as a young consultant, or as a promising executive in the banking industry. Achieving financial independence, I thought, was attractive, but never at the cost of leading your life in a sad and painful way.<\/strong> I thought life had to be enjoyed everyday. Obviously, all these ideas were confusing to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don’t have to work yourself to death to have a successful professional career, quite the contrary.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

My enlightenment arrived in 2008, when professor Stew D. Friedman from The Wharton School, my alma mater, published the book Total Leadership<\/em><\/a>. He has dedicated his academic life to creating a model to help people become better leaders and have richer lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I felt astonished. Suddenly, I discovered that to obtain good results as a leader at work it is important to have a rich life in all areas, both professional and personal. <\/strong>So you don\u2019t have to work yourself to death to have a successful professional career, quite the contrary: it is important to find harmony in life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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