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Since the publication of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow in 1990, the notion of "flow"—the state of optimal experience in which one loses oneself in a task or activity—has become a household word. It has been endorsed by political leaders such as President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair, as well as sports coaches, business leaders, and the Wall Street Journal, which listed it as one of six books "every well-stocked business library should have." With Good Business, Csikszentmihalyi applies the proven principles of Flow to the business world, revealing the specific values that have served visionary leaders who have succeeded in running businesses that are both successful and humane. Good Business is a key text for managers and for anyone seeking to find meaning, enrichment, and satisfaction on the job.
E-Book Content
Praise for Good Business "Csikszentmihalyi approaches the challenge of defining what constitutes happiness-enhancing 'good' business practices with admirable deliberation, building his con cept� from foundations anchored in behavioral psychol ogy.... It is testament to the depth of Csikszentmihalyi's work that he is able to bring such specificity to some very big questions without seeming trivial or facile."
-The Boston Globe
PENGUIN BOOKS
GOOD BUSINESS Hungarian-born Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is the C.S. and DJ. Davidson Professor of Psychology at the Peter F. Drucker School of Management at Claremont Grad
uate University and the director of The Quality of Life Research, a nonprofit institute that studies positive psychology in Claremont, California, where he lives.
Good Business Leadership,
Flow,
the Making
of
and
Meaning
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
PENGUIN BOOKS
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(:-11ile both are worthy goals, they are not even necessary, for when a task pro-
l l a p p i rwss in Action
57
duces flow, it is worth doing for its own sake. A famous composer remarked: "This is what I tell my students: 'Don't expect to make money, don't expect fame or a pat on the back, don 't expect a damn thing. Do it because you love it. ' " The Buddhist saying ex presses this same sentiment, "You are entitled to the work, but not to its rewards." T his is, admittedly, not a very popular way of think ing in our world. where everyone is concerned about his rights and entitlements. Of course, we naturally all want to receive what we consider our just rewards, and should do our best to get them. But if we do not enjoy the work that leads to them, we are forfeit ing the most i mportant part of the deal. Something that is worth doing for it'> own sake is called auto telic (from the Greek
auto =
self and
telos =
goal) , because it con
tains its goal within itself. We don't need external rewards to pursue such activities; we don 't require payment or admiration to play the guitar, hike i n the woods, or read a good novel. Another way to term · such activities is
intrinsically re-warding,
because their
primary reward is simply in being involved with them. Contrast these with activities that are primarily exotelic or
ing,
extrinsically reward