How to combine private and business life in a meaningful way? Is it just climbing the ladder higher and higher sacrificing personal happiness? Or the other way around having fun at work but thus not earning enough to feed the generations to come?

Dr Beat Bühlmann’s book “Stuck? Unhappy?” helps readers to become the CEO of their own life. Within the broader category of self-help books, it covers a holistic life management, not just career management or improving life at work towards balance. Instead it combines both sides in a fruitful approach.

Beat’s career in the IT industry spans already more than 25 years in several organisations from HP, Dell, Google and Evernote combining turning practical hands-on roles into leadership experience. We both joined HP as Solutions Consultants nearly at the same time and shared parts of our career journey, even adding Australian education programs to our portfolio. Beat’s first book “Need to Manage a Virtual Team?” represented his doctorate research looking ahead into the way we work today in a pandemic influenced world.

The term Professional Development Program (PDP) has been used regularly in large corporations to improve the business side of their top employees. Beat and I went through those programs in our respective organisations. He went a step further due to his personal motivation (see interview below) to plan his life towards happiness in a holistic mindset covering the professional and personal development leading to a fulfilled life.

The book begins with the downside of career development covering only one side of that coin which has been influenced by the former wall between work and private lives. As the core Beat shows his self-developed approach to a Personal Development plan which he referred to as “the Swiss PDP Approach” (despite not being coined by himself). Long before becoming a CEO of his current company, he took the mindset of becoming the ”CEO of your own life” in his model.

The book covers an example of a real-life map to illustrate the journey resulting in a “Life-Cycle Model” capturing a holistic view towards gaining financial freedom over time. A well-rounded Q&A section and further resources complete a highly practical book.

The first quote that stood out for me shows the grandfather’s wisdom within a thin chapter: “The main difference between adults and kids is the height, not the behaviour” followed by examples and action how to change that for yourself. Also this quote resonates with me: “Expectations define to a very high degree the level of disappointment.” There are more moments like this in the book to stop reading and start reflecting.
The PDP model described in the book can be applied in practice as many of Beat’s students confirmed. It seems to be easy to just fill in the current and future state but the more the reader gets into the nuts and bolts, the more the book becomes a journey of discovery. The different stages of the Life-Cycle Model include an external view which might be challenging but surely rewarding with further insight.

Instead of a comprehensive theory spanning hundreds of pages this rather thin book goes straight to the point. There is a message behind: if you don’t do anything, your life remains limited. You alone can add meaning to it and enrich your own story by combining work and private life together using the model taught in the book.

Aspiring book writers can see the underlying threat from turning a personal motivation into action and then sharing that further to others can result into a book with highly practical value. Many of the handwritten illustrations seem to lack perfection on purpose to be adaptable by the readers to get started quickly with an instantly applicable output. The one-page overview towards the end of the book shows the reward from the journey: we can indeed become the CEO of our own life!

Q&A with Dr. Beat Bühlmann

1. What was the deciding moment to write this book?

My favourite uncle lost his job at age of 55 and could not find a new job anymore until he officially retired at age of 65. What was a crucial time or experience for him made me think about “What can I do to prevent such a situation”? I was 27 years old when that happened, and it triggered a lot. I wanted to have multiple income streams and very low fix cost in order to truly be able to do what I want as of 50.

2. How long did it take from concept to launch?

There were 2 steps.
Step 1: I created a PDP model (PDP: Personal development plan) for myself to prevent such a situation my favourite uncle had to go through. How can I get my fix costs (flat, health insurance etc.) as low as possible? First, low fix costs gives you a lot of freedom of choice (and I argue that one sleeps better with super-low or even fix cost at zero). Moreover, low fix costs allow you to maybe have a job that pays less but makes you happier or is simply more meaningful (e.g. a highly paid but super boring and mega political job at a large bank versus low-paid but super exciting job as scuba diver teacher).

When l led my first team at Dell Computers in Geneva, I realised that having a super-simple but rich PDP model is kind of a superpower of a modern people manager. Why? Well, most adults just “go with the flow” and do not really make very conscious decisions about life. Therefore, the first mid-life crisis hits them hard. In order to prevent that, a people manager may offer a PDP process and, if the employee wants, even active guidance on top of the PDP model alone. I realised that most people in my teams were positively surprised by the fact that a manager truly cares about the development of its team members. That a manager can stand out and actually be a leader instead of a “manager”. The phase of step 1, kind of me practicing PDP developments with team members and friends, took about 10 years.

Step 2: During my expat year at Google UK in London, the EMEA VP Matt Brittin had heard about my PDP approach and asked me to give him a demo. He liked it so much that he asked me to train the top 200 managers at a Leadership Event (see here: https://swiss-pdp-approach.com/download-video). The idea appeared to write a super-short, super-to-the-point practical how-to book in order to help more people conduct their PDP, finally resulting in “becoming the CEO of your own life” instead of being the marionette or even the slave of others. The phase of writing the book took about 3 super-focused months. What was possible thanks to the 10 years of prior PDP practice.

3. How did you perform the research to create the practical content?

I used tools like Google (finding) and Evernote (capturing, note-taking, summarizing etc.) to collect theoretical and practice knowledge. Based on my research experience of my doctoral research degree and my first book about virtual teams, I could write rather quickly. However, the 2nd book had another focus. While the 1st book aimed at academic writing, the 2nd one focused on kind of everyone as it is clearly a practical handbook, a how-to step-by-step guide. Therefore, there were less references than in a doctoral research paper.

4. What was the biggest challenge along the process (and how did you overcome it)?

Time... I had a full-time job, 3 teaching assignments at Swiss universities and a family. On top, writing a book. But it worked fine thanks to the “Deep Work Framework” by Cal Newport. Focus, focus, focus. Zero distraction, no social media, no notifications.

5. What was your own reflection along the journey?

The more I wrote, the more excited I got about it. It is something that truly most people should do and know, but school do not teach that. They teach math, statistics etc. but not how to live a meaningful and happy life.

6. What is the outcome in having this book available?

Having written a book is not only a transformative experience for yourself, but it is also an amazing door opener. It is a great and super-personal gift as well as a useful “leave behind” at events when I give speeches or when I teach.

7. What would you advise others about writing their book?

Do not think too long, just start writing. Writing is anyway one of the best brain activities a human being can do. It makes you think deeply, you connect the dots, you discover new insights and gives you fresh perspectives. Once written, you can share it and therefore help others, too. Don’t be afraid, Rome was not built in a day either. It is a journey – just start and keep this image in mind:

Dr. Beat Buhlmann: “Stuck? Unhappy? Become the CEO of Your Own Life”, Göttingen: Cuvillier Verlag 2017, ISBN 978-3-7369-9498-0 (Paperback) or 978-3-7369-8498-1 (Ebook)

More about the author: www.swiss-pdp-approach.com and here