There Is More to Life than the Corner Office
Posted on Book Reviews | October 8, 2009 | 9 Comments
This post was written by Anastasiya. Follow me on Twitter or StumbleUpon and keep your life balanced!
Image by How would it feel to be a CEO of a big company? Or maybe own your own company that brings in a million or two every year? Sounds tempting, right? The corner office life has become the ultimate goal of people all around the world and millions would kill to be in such a position.
Why is the corner office life so appealing? Probably your first thought will be money.
“Security, the good life, respect from others mostly. Money is the scoreboard. Making and having money is the way people win, and I want to be a winner.”
It is natural for us to have a desire to be rich. Some of us might dream about winning a lottery and never do anything to get rich while others will use every chance they have to make every extra penny they can. The first group of people will go with the flow of the current and probably never reach anything in life (after all, “even a dead fish can flow with the current” 
). The second group is the people who want to be in that corner office. The question is how much will they sacrifice for the corner office and what they are going to gain in return.
Being career minded has become the motto and the curse of our society. We forget about our health, about our family and friends as well as about our spiritual values because we want to be promoted, we want to earn more money and we want to be successful. Some of these career driven people will get to the top of the corporate ladder while some of them won’t but all of them will eventually lose. They will lose joy in life, they will lose family, they will lose health and they will be left with nothing. It is of no wonder that last year we heard so much in the news about CEOs committing suicide because they had lost their jobs and their money. They didn’t have anything else left in their lives to live for or so it seemed to them.
There is nothing wrong with having money and having a successful career and this is the main idea of Lamar Smiths’ book “There Is More to Life than the Corner Office.” However, there is more to life than just a job and material values. You can experience deep joy and fulfillment only if you are a balanced person. Where does your career take you?
“Nowhere by itself. In the end, it’s not what matters most. It’s part of the picture and is a means to an end for some of the other components of a fulfilling life.”
Our life has 5 key areas and if you develop all of them then you will enjoy a joyful and fulfilling life. These key areas are:
- Physical
- Emotional
- Intellectual
- Financial
- Spiritual
In his book Lamar Smith shows why these areas are so important and how you can develop them. Concentrating on just one area will eventually push your life out of balance and out of control. Being career oriented and being a “killer” in the office is not the only way to live a successful life.
I loved the way Lamar Smith and Tammy Kling wrote their book. It is not an ordinary self help book with dry advice and emotionless explanations. It is a fascinating story that teaches you without lecturing and gives you advice without touting. It was one of those books that I read in one breath and that caught my attention from the first few lines. This book will help you set priorities in your life and see the long-term results of your decisions (”roll the video”, according to the main character Al Crafton). I can definitely call it an easy read with heavy artillery:-). Here are some of my favorite quotations from “There is More to Life Than the Corner Office”:
“Each and every person is incalculably valuable. Each person we meet is as valuable and deserving of our respect as every other.”
“No human is perfect. We all fail at times and disappoint each other and ourselves. I do find, however, a very large difference between those who thoughtfully try to choose and follow the better path and those who either have not thought about it or find the apparent shortcuts too tempting.”
“The followers decide who the leader is. If they are willing to follow and to bring more and more of what they have to offer to the team, greater things will happen.”
“We can live some weeks without food. Days without water and minutes without air. But if we lose hope, we’re done.”
“Marriage is somewhat like a garden, and has to be tended all the time, watered, and weeded… but there is no success away from the family that will fully compensate for failure at home.”
I hope that if you decide to buy “There is More to Life Than the Corner Office” then you will enjoy it as much as I did.
You can read more about the authors Lamar Smith and Tammy Kling and about their approach to balanced living at Improving Your Balance.
Keep it balanced!
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Hello,
This is a fantastic book! I found out about Lamar just over a year ago now, and this book has been such an inspiration to me. Thanks for sharing this with your readers, it’s so nice to see!
I am glad that you liked this book too. There is nothing better than reading an inspiring book and then sharing your thoughts with people around you.
Anastasiya, I completely agree with this bold line “…all of them will eventually lose.” It’s funny how when someone sets their mind on a man-made construct (like a corner-office), they will almost always feel empty eventually once they achieve it. Thanks for this great post!
Thanks for your comment Belinda. I think that today more people should realize that man-made construct (as you called it) is not everything that there is in life. You can find balanced life only when you stop concentrating on these things and start seeing the big picture.
Anastasiya, this is a great post. No one has ever been on his/her death bed saying, “If only I had spent more time in the corner office”. Sounds absurd? It is — people are much more apt to lament, “If only I had spent more time with my family.”
This sounds like an interesting book. I like the point you made in developing the 5 key areas of life. In a workshop, I once did this fun circular graph where you mapped out these 5 areas to see which ones were more developed and which ones were less developed. Then our aim was to create an action plan to bring all 5 of these areas into balance. I wish I remembered the name or could get my hands on that game again. Thanks for sharing.
I believe that you cannot be fully happy unless you are balanced in these 5 areas. Something will always be missing in your life if you are not well balanced. Concentrating on just one area will lead to depression, burnout, stress or unhealthy addictions.
Anastasyia, I’ve been around highly successful people making several hundreds of millions since my early twens. Yet while I was pursuing that goal also when I was young, there was also a part of mine, that never wanted to share positions with them. Their lives in no way is balanced.
And although they have nice cars, houses etc. they are on constant medication and are never satisfied. Most of them are afraid of loosing anything (and some had recently). I guess they are looking at the wrong place. Security as well as happiness could never be found through money, a great title or lots of gadgets and toys to impress your friends with.
I agree with you on that and this is the main point that the book brought up. I personally believe that God and family take the first place in my life and only after that I start thinking about job, money and even my health.