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You know, I'm here with Ayse Birsel. Ayse is one of the world's top designers.
I had the privilege of meeting her when I was working on a coaching project with
the CEO of Herman Miller. And it was a wonderful project, and she was a key
stakeholder and designer of furniture. >> Yes. >> I got to interview her.
We've been friends now for probably 20 years. She's a wonderful person, and
she came up with a great idea that's changed my life, called Design Your Life.
How did you make this sort of transition from a world-famous designer,
who designed all kinds of fascinating things, like furniture, toilet seats,
all kinds of interesting stuff, into a person looking at the design of your life?
>> You know, Marshall, I believe that my life is my biggest project. And I thought,
if my life is a project and I'm a designer, can I apply design process and
tools to my life? And I decided to experiment with it.
That's how it started. And then I did a workshop, Design the Life You Love, for
the first time. And people seemed to like it, and I realized that people really
want to be designers of their own life. And it's been growing word of mouth
ever since. >> Well, I am a graduate of your Design Your Life workshop. >> Yes,
you are. >> I am a graduate of this fine workshop myself. >> Yes. >> And, you know,
you might say, well, at age 67, why am I going to a workshop on designing my life?
I feel like, you know, you're never too young or old to look at designing the rest
of your life. >> Or redesigning it, right? >> Or redesigning it. I like it.
>> I've actually wanted to ask you,
because we've known each other a long time. And I look at you and think you have
a very original life. You work with some of the world's best leaders.
You yourself are among the top 50 business thinkers in the world. And so I thought,
Well, Marshall, you have an original life, yet you wanted to come to my workshop.
You brought 50 of your friends. >> Right. >> Why? >> Well, you know to me...
I've done programs myself called Creating a Great Rest of Your Life,
in this very room with many CEOs.
My friend Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford, has been in this room, Mike Duke,
CEO of Walmart, has been in this room. Many, many top leaders have been
in this room and we've talked about what are you going to do now...
These are typically people my age, older people, at 60s, maybe early 70s, and
talking about what are you going to do with the rest of your life?
And really what I've learned is, the concept of playing crappy golf with
old men at the country club, while eating chicken salad sandwiches and
discussing gall bladder surgery may not be quite as wonderful as it sounds,
especially if you've had a meaningful life. And we talk about what is,
what matters in life, really what matters... And what we've come up with,
a couple of things... One is you have to be happy what you're doing, you want to
love the process of what you're doing. You don't want to be a victim or a martyr, and
you also need to find meaning. You can't just go on cruises and
play bad golf--you have to do something that matters in life. And so,
I think it is very important at every stage of life, we go back and
look at what's important, what matters, and what do I want to be?
We spend so little time thinking about this. One of my good coaching
clients was going to retire in six months. He was the CEO of a huge company.
And I said, If you knew the company were going to change in six months,
totally different customers, everything, would you plan for it?
He said, Of course I would--I'm a responsible person, I'm the CEO.
I said, Your life is going to change in six months, totally change.
Everything is going to be different. How much time have you spent planning for
that? You know what he said? None. Big mistake... >> Right. >> Big,
big mistake... So I think it's very important, as we go through various stages
of life, to reflect and think back, what matters in life? What's important?
And I don't feel any of us are too young or old to kind of begin this process.
>> I totally agree, and I think designing your life is exactly about that.
That at certain times in your life, whether you're at the beginning of your
life and you have all your life in front of you... Or whether you're in your
mid-40s and you're thinking about, like, I've been successful, I've had a family,
I've had a career... But, what's next for me? >> Right. >> Or, like you said,
empty nesters, you know, kids are out of the house... Now, your life is changing,
or you're retiring. At all these stages, you can look at your life and
think about it differently. And that's the idea behind designing your life.
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