Perceptions of Success

I admire Elinor Ostrom for three reasons.

First, because the recent winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize for economics (shared with Oliver E. Williamson) found something that interested her intensely and made it her life’s work. “Here” seems to have been enough; no constant scramble to get to the next topic, the next job, the next career. No need to constantly get to a new “there”.

Second, I admire Professor Ostrom because her research seems to be so hopeful; about distributing power more equitably and relying on the wisdom of those close to an issue of shared concern to make the right decision, assuming access to good information.

Third, Professor Ostrom’s work, while undoubtedly known to her peers, was invisible to the wider world until now. I admire her for having it be it’s own reward, for being driven by internal motivation and curiosity rather than desire for external recognition. Being driven by a need to be recognized would have required a great deal of patience.

This is a woman who seems to have lived the opposite of a bajiggity life. Admittedly life looks different in the rear view mirror than when we are living it. I don’t know the details of the Professor’s, but on the surface compared to multiple careers, multiple employers and multiple locations, the choice and ability to “bloom where you are planted” and make your interests the center of your work over a long period gives me a sense she is grounded and solid. Not inflexible or a Luddite, but the kind of person whose sureness encourages trust and whose ongoing curiosity engages conversation.