R3ciprocity.com - Prof David Maslach: Innovation; Research Life; Striving Towards Happiness

Get a financial planner to do well in your career.

Be at peace with who you are. My whole life I have wanted “people to like me” and to fit in. That is why I got into education and #scienceandtechnology. I thought education was my ticket to earn acceptance from others. I don’t fit in today. I feel ackward and strange, just like I did in grade 9. I never really had friends in early high school. It never goes away, no matter what you do. Accept your...

As a #professor, I need to get to where I’m going often too quickly. I don’t know “where” I’m going, but I need to get there fast. If I told you, you wouldn’t understand. Learning to say I don’t need to get there “today” is one of the most powerful things that has released me from a lot of the baggage that comes with my career. You might get “there” tomorrow. If I say patience, you’re going to dis...

I was never meant to do this. I strongly believe that if you have those feelings to embrace them and try to figure out what you’re actually about. Try to find how you can blend what you’re doing with your own sense of self.

#PhD students in business are taught to #strategize in their career. I think it’s the worst thing we can do. I have grown frustrated with the neoclassical economic model. I was enamored with it early on during my PhD, and took a whole bunch of extra PhD #economics classes. It is similar to “pure math,” so it is a simplified world. While it is pervasive, and it is a relatively easy model to work wi...

most major moments of your life, and even within each day, just require you to slow down and not get panicky. The analogy that I like to give is that this is a kid to swimming. Swimming is just controlled drowning. And you have to slow yourself down to realize that you’re going to be OK and to get through it to the other side. the more that you can slow yourself down the faster off, you will be..

I am not the best, nor will I ever will be. We define ourselves by being the “best” in any particular category. Once you’ve been living life long enough, you’ll realize that these categories are pretty arbitrary, and they most often ignore all of the things that you don’t excel at. When you openly talk about the things that you’re not best at, people will ask you “are you OK?” Or, they will just s...

Everybody has something that they used to fill their tank. What do you use to fill your tank? For me, I’m learning Italian, exercise, and watch TV with my kids. I am also building R3ciprocity. Most of the economic and #management models of life exclude those impactful elements. they are excluded, and humans are treated as machines. In my own life, having these important elements are the reason why...

Life requires you to often manage #negativity in your life. One of the things that has been important to me is realizing that my thoughts are often in my control, and I can choose to actively manage how I engage with the world. If I don’t feel well, I work towards feeling good. I can choose to see all of the negative aspects, and that is easy to do. Or, I can choose to view positivity and the oppo...

This is how we tackle an application to a foreign researcher, so that you have far better odds of getting into graduate school then what is happening by a straight up ask.

Don’t be so shy, and change your life out and being yourself. All of those things you’re afraid of you’re not as serious as you think they are.

you don’t understand. I need to get this done. Those are the words that I often hear by people that are not centered. Many people that feel more centered have more time in the day, and will make time for anything that happens. You will never have enough time. And you will always feel like other people don’t understand. It’s up to you to decide to make time in your life.

My default will always be choosing an environment of love and compassion. I was privileged to be part of a family that had that.

How does one navigate #uncertainty in a market? Honestly, there’s no right way. We presume that there is a strategic way, but in most cases, it just involves self-forgiveness. If I knew the right way, I think I should get paid more than what I do, have more friends, and live longer. For every choice that has the expected outcome that you preferred, there are N others that result in outcomes that y...

in school, we thought that we’re gonna get feedback almost every day. You do an assignment, a teacher, and you get to see how you did. You get regular few almost every day Mrs. mom reflection of reality. Most of us waiting for that validation and approval that we did something. Most of us want to know that we are good people. You’ll never get that information in the real world. Likely you will get...

we all have traits that we feel bad about. If you have strong negative emotions, and you can’t openly talk about it, it means that it has power over you. Don’t let things in your life have power over you. You may be unable to talk about things like money, your relationship, and other things because of the power that these feelings have over you. Such strong emotions that we often have adverse reac...

“Follow your passion” they say. I don’t have a passion, and neither do “they.” #Academics are supposed to have a #passion for research. #Managers are supposed to be passionate about people. Your supposed to be a top passionate performer. The idea that we have have to “follow your passion”, that we have one direction in life, is a bit of a misnomer. Newsflash: Passions die and others may dwindle yo...

Much of modern management, and the outcome-based focus of management is an economic logic of management by fear. If you’ve done things, right, then you’ll get the right outcomes. If you’ve done things wrong, then we need to select a different person for the job. An alternative logic, is a logic of love and understanding. It’s a logic of being curious about why somebody might’ve made an error. It’s...

“#Strategy #Professor” is an ironic oxymoron. I am a Strategy Professor. This implies that I must “profess” some understanding about the world. Strategy implies that we know how to live a better life because we understand the key strategies of success. Surely, what we know applies to the organization of families? I’m sitting here laughing and smirking as I write this. Last night, I ate ice cream,...

There’s a lot of people that have given up. They don’t feel like they should try. But, the amount of potential that you have even when you get older is spectacular. You’ll never know how much potential you have until you actually get up and try.

almost all data is very messy, and requires a great deal of effort to work with it. We need to be more open and honest, with the messiness of the real world.

Much of my experience is my life, feeling like an outsider in academia, and feeling like I never quite fit in. Because of this, I always want other people to be impressed with me. So when they don’t like my experiences, I have to feel the need to correct them. This is something that I struggle with.

Work together as a team in a family. Knowing that everybody works as a team, but you have boundaries is an important part of a healthy relationship. It’s about thinking how you can tackle the world together, rather than thinking about who is winning and losing in the relationship, that matters.

much of being a professor is admitting that you’re good enough as you are.

I contemplate whether academic tenure track jobs are dying, and what this means for anybody that is thinking about going into the career. I suggest rather that they’re changing and some of these changing norms in society are quite positive for the career.