Making a Life, Making a Living

January 10, 2000
Albion, who gave up a teaching post at Harvard Business School and now publishes a monthly newsletter called "Making a Life," has spent the last 11 years preaching that personal integrity is the real ticket to prosperity. He cites a study that tracked the careers of 1500 business school graduates. In 1960, the year they graduated, all but 255 said they wanted to make money first in order to do what they really wanted later on; the remainder decided to do what they loved in hopes that money would follow. Of the 101 who became millionaires by 1980, only one belonged to the former group. In chapters with titles such as "Don't Let Success Stand in the Way of Opportunity," "Bring Your Values to Work" and "Live a Life, Not a Resume," Albion profiles a range of entrepreneurs and high-level employees. His emphasis is on the disparate paths these people took to achieve a sense of purpose and meaning in work that carried over into their personal lives. There's Elliot Hoffman, who built the San Francisco-based cafe Just Desserts from a single birthday cake into one of the city's most profitable and socially responsible businesses. And there's Albion's most personal story, that of his mother, which frames the entire book. In 1986, she was diagnosed with cancer, and her doctor indicated she would be lucky to live six months. Now in her 70s, she continues to head the successful manufacturing company she began in 1978. Albion's book powerfully illustrates what can be accomplished when, in our work lives, we use our heads while following our hearts.

January 1, 2000
Albion was a Harvard marketing professor for 20 years, and in the 1980s he consulted for big-name consumer brands and wrote several books on advertising. But he grew disillusioned with the quest for "money, power, and fame" and left Harvard. He founded You & Co., a recruiting firm that matches MBAs and socially responsible companies, and cofounded Students for Responsible Business, which now has branches at more than 100 business schools. Albion continues to consult; now his expertise is "humanistic marketing," and he commands fees of up to $6,000 a day. He also speaks regularly at major business schools and publishes an online newsletter devoted to business ethics, corporate responsibility, and finding meaning in work, which reaches 50,000 readers. Here, he sets down his philosophy by spelling out 12 guidelines that address four major questions: Who are you? What do you want? What can you do? and Where can you go? Albion answers those questions using dozens of inspirational stories and aphorisms from sages as diverse as Mother Teresa and Lily Tomlin. ((Reviewed January 1 & 15, 2000))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2000, American Library Association.)