How Will You Measure Your Life?

How do you lead a fulfilling life? That profound question animates this book of inspiration and insight from world-class business strategist and bestselling author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen.

After beating a heart attack, advanced-stage cancer and a stroke in three successive years, the world-renowned innovation expert and author of one of the best selling and most influential business books of all time – The Innovator’s Dilemma – Clayton M. Christensen delivered a short but powerful speech to the Harvard Business School graduating class. He presented a set of personal guidelines that have helped him find meaning and happiness in his life – a challenge even the brightest and most motivated of students find daunting.

Akin to The Last Lecture in its revelatory perspective following life-altering events, that speech subsequently became a hugely popular article in the Harvard Business Review and is now a groundbreaking book, putting forth a series of questions and models for success that have long been applied in the world of business, but also can be used to find cogent answers to pressing life questions: How can I be sure that I’ll find satisfaction in my career? How can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse, my family and my close friends become enduring sources of happiness? How can I avoid compromising my integrity (and stay out of jail)?

How Will You Measure Your Life? is a highly original, surprising book from a singular business figure. It’s a book sure to inspire and educate readers – companies and individuals, students of business, mid-career professionals, and even parents – the world over.


“If you're ready to get deep, real quick, you need to read Clay Christensen's new book, How Will You Measure Your Life?, co-written with James Allworth, a consultant and Harvard MBA, and Karen Dillon, former editor of the Harvard Business Review. It mixes tested business theories and a heap of common sense. It's one of the more surprisingly powerful books of personal philosophy of the 21st century.”Forbes

“How Will You Measure Your Life? is an intriguing paradox. A self-help book that is not a self-help book, based on rigorous research but enlivened by anecdotes about the experiences of a man who is hailed as a model by his students. It neatly reverses the technique of those business bestsellers that use the lives and careers of great leaders – from Attila the Hun to General George Patton – to lay down timeless rules for corporate executives.”Financial Times

“[A] highly engaging and intensely revealing work….Spiritual without being preachy, this work is especially relevant for young people embarking on their career, but also useful for anyone who wants to live a more meaningful life in accordance with their values.”Publishers Weekly

“The book encapsulates Christensen’s best advice to keep high achievers from being disrupted in their own lives….[P]rovocative but reassuring: Peter Drucker meets Mitch Albom.” Bloomberg Businessweek