How's Your Asset? (Part 1 of 3)

At the end of my first full year as a management consultant, at the age of 39, I decided to take stock. How healthy was my career? I quickly discovered a disturbing paradox. My income statement was fantastic, but my balance sheet was deteriorating so badly I was in danger of ruining my career, i.e. going out of business.

Just before starting my consulting career I had published a few articles which had caught the attention of my target clientele, and I also had the advantage of having been a faculty member at the Harvard Business School for the previous six-and-a-half years. The consequence was that I was incredibly busy.