Soft Skills - Ask a Wharton MBA
Develop Soft Skills – Work Smart & Live More
The last two weeks have been teaching me a lesson I’ve resisted for most of my life: acceptance can sometimes get you further—and faster—than force. I’m not a naturally patient person. When something slows me down, my instinct is to push harder, fix it quickly, or work around it. But this time? My body had other plans. ...
I tweaked my back on Saturday and have been walking around like an old lady ever since. I can see that my upper back is out of place. Getting up hurt, lying down hurt, even sleeping is uncomfortable. Every small movement requires planning.
Why am I sharing this? Because it’s Thanksgiving season—the perfect time to be thankful—and this little injury reminded me of something big: how grateful I am for my health. My body will recover. I get to do so many things. And sometimes it takes losing something temporarily to see clearly what I already had. ...
It was three days before Isabel’s college applications were due. I checked in to see if she had looked at my essay suggestions. She said calmly that she had—and then told me, just as confidently, that she had decided not to take them.
To my surprise, I felt relieved. And proud. My girl had really grown up. ...
It’s been a whirlwind three weeks since I returned from China. Both of my daughters are in transition — Alexis is applying to high school, and Isabel is applying to college. Lately, our evenings feel dominated by editing, deadlines, and school application talks.
I’m constantly torn between how much to help and how much to let them figure things out. Honestly, this might be the hardest job I’ve ever had. I want to be a good parent — to teach them what I’ve learned about school applications, time management, and handling stress. But I’m realizing that while I think I know what to do, the landscape has completely changed. ...
Most of us start life with a perfect score in physical wealth. As kids, we bounce back quickly, brimming with energy, and assume our bodies will always keep up. But as we age, physical wealth becomes something we must actively protect—and if we don’t, the decline can be sharper than we ever expect. ...
If you asked me a decade ago what “mental wealth” meant, I probably would have stared blankly. For most of my life, I thought happiness was tied to achievement: get into the right college, land the prestigious job, earn the next promotion. Each milestone was supposed to unlock peace of mind. Instead, every success gave me maybe a week of relief before I moved on to the next goal. ...
When we talk about wealth, social wealth, depth of our connections to others, is often the most overlooked type. We take for granted that when we’re young, we’re surrounded by classmates, teammates, and family. But as life gets busier, friendships become harder to maintain. We forget how essential social wealth really is. You can have money, health, time, even inner peace—but if you’re alone, life will still feel empty. In fact, research shows that social isolation shortens life spans and makes us less happy. ...