Brooke Boyarsky Pratt (HBS '13) enjoyed considerable success in her early career, quickly climbing the ranks to associate partner at McKinsey, and later becoming an executive vice president at Berkadia, a Berkshire Hathaway portfolio company. Throughout these years, she had also felt a strong desire to follow her passion and make a difference but had never been able to determine what that meant for her. However, as someone who had struggled with her weight since she was young, a routine visit to the doctor in 2020 where she experienced weight stigma yet again turned into a clarion call, and led Boyarsky Pratt to consider finding some way to address the problem of obesity care. After wrestling with the idea for nearly two years, Boyarsky Pratt quit her job at Berkadia to start knownwell, an integrated weight and primary care provider that had made business model and service design choices to specifically support people with obesity. In December 2022, knownwell raised a $4.5m seed round, and in the spring of 2023, opened its first weight-inclusive clinic in the Boston area to glowing and touching patient reviews. Looking to the future, Boyarsky Pratt had to make a fundamental decision on how she wanted to grow knownwell. Should she grow slowly and build a small footprint of clinics in the area over the next few years? Or should she scale fast to potentially help millions of people across the U.S. struggling with their weight feel better served by their doctor? This decision had both professional and personal implications. Which path should she take?

Today, both organizations and employees are increasingly focused on passion. An analysis of 200 million U.S. job postings found that the use of the word "passion" increased nearly tenfold from 2007 to 2019, while a recent survey of thousands of college-educated workers found that 72% of their listed career goals were related to passion-more than both salary and job security. Similarly, more than 90% of surveyed Columbia Business School MBA students listed "pursuing their passion" as an important goal for their future jobs. The belief that passion is a key attribute for employees to pursue and for organizations to nurture has become deeply enmeshed in contemporary society, with the pursuit of passion increasingly being seen as the morally right thing to do.

As co-founder and CEO of Simprints-a social enterprise with the mission to "transform the way the world fights poverty"-Toby Norman was at a crossroads. His organization had developed ground-breaking technology used to verify aid delivery, reached more than 2.5 million people in 17 different countries, and received widespread accolades in the global health community. Having initially exclusively focused on partnerships with like-minded NGOs, Simprints attracted highly passionate employees willing to make sacrifices in service of the organization's mission. To scale its impact, Norman had recently decided that Simprints begin working with governments, a move many employees disagreed with, leading nearly half of the organization's workforce to quit. Despite initial success with its new strategic path, Norman wondered how central passion should be to the future direction of the organization. Should Simprints cast passion aside entirely and focus on bringing its technology to as many people as possible, including in areas beyond international development? Should Norman find a way to re-center passion, perhaps by making its technology open-source in an effort to sidestep discussions of who Simprints should be used by? How else could Simprints keep its employees motivated to fulfill its mission?

A fitness executive contemplates her next move. This fictional case study by Jon M. Jachimowicz, Francesca Gino features expert commentary by Sarah Robb O'Hagan and Lan Phan.

A fitness executive contemplates her next move. This fictional case study by Jon M. Jachimowicz, Francesca Gino features expert commentary by Sarah Robb O'Hagan, and Lan Phan.

A fitness executive contemplates her next move. This fictional case study by Jon M. Jachimowicz, Francesca Gino features expert commentary by Sarah Robb O'Hagan, and Lan Phan.

Do you-as leader, an individual within an organization, or running your own business-know when to say yes and when to say no? How do you make decisions about your own career and life? How do you counsel others who ask you for career and life insights? Owusu-Kesse is not only a new CEO of a nonprofit organization changing the lives of tens of thousands of children and young adults, but he also took this position while the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the world, and more specifically in the streets and homes of Harlem, New York. Now the newly selected CEO has a major decision to make, one which could change the trajectory of his own career, the organization he is tasked to lead, and make a meaningful difference in the lives of children and young adults beyond Harlem. A group of philanthropic organizations have asked Owusu-Kesse to take the lead in coordinating the scaling of the Harlem Children's Zone place-based model nationally, beginning in a dozen major U.S. cities. What should the response of the CEO be to this extraordinary request? How should he make the decision? How does he think about the children and families within Harlem who already require his full attention amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial reckoning, renewing a sense of urgency to address rampant inequalities? How does he think about inspiring and leading his organization of 1,800 professionals who are already tired and depleted? Should he seriously take on a national effort at this time?

In November 2018, Sarah Robb O'Hagan is reeling from an unceremonious exit as CEO of Flywheel, a chain of indoor cycling studios. In the past, Robb O'Hagan had led transformational change across companies throughout the sports and fitness industry, including as President at Gatorade and Equinox. As a highly passionate fitness enthusiast, stepping into the CEO role at Flywheel felt like the pinnacle of her career, one that she would be extremely passionate about. But somewhere along the way, something went wrong, though Robb O'Hagan couldn't quite put her finger on it. Her tough experience left her questioning: She was 20 years into her career, had seemingly reached the pinnacle-only to find that this isn't what she wanted. Thinking about the next 20 years of her career was dizzying, and her ideal dream job wasn't revealing herself. What should Robb O'Hagan be looking for? What should the next step in her career and life look like?

Every day, millions of people around the world face long commutes to work. In the United States alone, approximately 25 million workers spend more than 90 minutes each day getting to and from their jobs. And yet few people enjoy their commutes. This distaste for commuting has serious implications for well-being. Studies have found that workers with lengthy commutes feel more anxious and less happy and satisfied with life than those with shorter ones and are more likely to get divorced. They also are less likely to find their daily activities worthwhile, are more exhausted and less productive at work, and have lower job satisfaction. But it doesn't have to be this way. Research, including studies that the authors conducted, suggests that small tweaks to the way you conduct your commute can improve the experience, leaving you both happier and more productive. They offer five strategies that commuters can try: Use the time to shift your mindset; prepare to be productive; find your "pocket of freedom"; share the spirit; and reduce your commute.