Charles Handy on the Good Life

       

Charles Handy, in his, “MYSELF and other more important matters”, which is about himself, as you would have guessed already, opens with a chapter which explores what it means to be oneself.

      

       The central question which he asks himself is, whether there is a core personality at our centre which waits to be revealed, or whether our personality evolves with time.

      

       He has the right to ask the question, since he has been a classical scholar, an Executive in Shell Corporation, a Professor, then a Presenter of ‘Thought for The Day’ in the BBC, a Management Guru, and now, a Social Philosopher.

      

       Many of us feel that we are living a ‘false’ life, which is an outcome of our discomfort with what we are, and with what we are doing. Our profession does not suit our personality. And what is our personality? Is it a given, or do we make it up as we go along?

      

       Handy discusses the idea developed by Malcolm Gladwell in “The Tipping Point”, which describes our personality as a combination of the Maven, the Connector and the Salesman. Someone who is predominantly a Maven is clever and interested in ideas, the Connector is a social creature who relates well with people, and the Salesman is persuasive and charismatic. We are never one or the other, but a combination of all three. What we do, should suit our personality, otherwise it feels distinctly uncomfortable.

      

       Does this mean that we are cut out to do a particular line of pursuit and no other? Yes and no. Yes in that we won’t feel comfortable unless we are involved in an enterprise that suits our strengths, that engages our attention, that rewards us in the effort itself. No, in that, to quote Handy’s excellent words, “If you care enough, you can and will learn to do almost anything”. Looking back at his own life, he adds, “My real trouble was not that I was in the wrong jobs for the first half of my life, but that I didn’t feel passionate enough about what I was doing”.

      

       Handy, then, asks us to explore our possibilities for happiness and well-being. “Life”, he says, “is really a search for my own identity”. Elsewhere he says, “Our identity is partly inherited, partly shaped by early experiences, but it is not fully formed until we have explored more of the possibilities”

      

       Using the concept of Johari window, Charles Handy gives us an idea of what an authentic life is. We might have some idea of our nature, but we cannot know what we are until we see ourselves in action. And then we gain a partial knowledge of our nature, some of which is shared by others, but this knowledge is not reciprocal. We don’t really know what others know about us. And there are areas which neither we, nor others know. Our endeavour should be to widen the window of self-knowledge, and keep it open for others to see. It is in this context that he asks us to explore our possibilities.

      

       Handy believes in our possibilities, and is sanguine about our prospects. Paraphrasing Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, he says that the components of a good life are Living, Learning, Loving and then leaving a Legacy. “Our task in life, therefore, is to make the most of what we start with”, he writes, which shows us that he is deeply grounded in practical realities. Yet his optimism comes out in the confident assertion, “Everyone can be successful’. This declaration of hope is beguiling, but we won’t know how true he is until we try to find out what we are good at.