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ManagingYourself 185

You might want to bear in mind the words of Shyam Giridharadas,
who left McKinsey to found Prism Consulting International: “I
loved the Firm, but I was wedded to my family.”

EXERCISES
We didn’t see the point of exercises for this section. Life is for liv-
ing, not for practice. Make the most of it.

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, even more so than in the rest of this book, we don’t
purport to have all the answers. We hope that you found at least
something that can help you further your career and make your life
a little better. If that’s the case, then we’ve done our job.
One final point with regard to self-management: we believe
that many people in the business world would benefit from light-
ening up a bit. Not that you shouldn’t take yourself seriously.
We’re not advocating that everyone walk around with a sense of
ironic detachment like the characters in “Seinfeld.” We simply
mean that there is, or ought to be, more to life than making the
next sale or finishing the next report. As we said earlier in this
chapter, it’s important to maintain perspective, and having a life
that extends beyond the confines of your office will help you in
that regard.
* * *
We’ve now finished our journey through the McKinsey Mind.
We hope that along the way you’ve learned something about how
to improve your decision making, how to manage the decision-