The Joy of Strategy: A Business Plan for Life

Introduction

What Is a Strategic Plan and Why Do You Need One?

The joy of a life well lived—our work well done, our cherished ones well loved, our potential realized. Isn’t that what we’re all after? You don’t need to leave your dreams to chance. However, achieving this most fundamental and often elusive goal doesn’t just happen. It requires a strategy. To create a meaningful plan, you need a structured approach that guides you, step by step, through the process of defining what is most important to you and what you must do to get it. The world’s most successful businesses do this as a matter of course, and there is no more essential business than the business of your life.

Here’s my story. In 1995, I was recruited to lead Massachusetts General ...