1169: Tapping into the Transformative Power of Sabbaticals with DJ DiDonna

DJ DiDonna makes the case for why taking more extended time off helps professionals get further in their careers–and shares tricks for actually snagging that time.

— YOU’LL LEARN —

1) How to convince your boss to let you take a sabbatical

2) How sabbaticals act as “regret insurance”

3) How to plan a truly fulfilling sabbatical

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— ABOUT DJ —

DJ DiDonna is a senior lecturer of business administration at Harvard Business School, where he teaches MBA courses on entrepreneurship and building meaningful professional and personal lives. He has spent his career translating social science research into real-world tools for positive change. In 2019, DiDonna founded The Sabbatical Project to define, explore, and research the role of sabbaticals in modern life. He has helped organizations around the world—from nonprofits to Fortune 50 companies—design and implement sabbatical policies.

His work has been featured in The Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, Time, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. Previously, DiDonna cofounded EFL Global, a fintech company that enabled more than $2 billion in capital to underbanked businesses and individuals across twenty countries before its acquisition in 2018. DiDonna earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. On his sabbatical, DiDonna walked nine hundred miles on pilgrimage in Shikoku, Japan, helped lead the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities at his undergraduate alma mater, Notre Dame, and unskillfully remodeled his kitchen. Outside work, you can find him plotting how to be in the Big Outdoors.

• Book: Big Time Off: The Transformative Power of Sabbaticals and How to Take One by DJ DiDonna

• LinkedIn: DJ DiDonna

• Website: TheSabbaticalProject.org

• Website: djdidonna.com

— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW —

• Tool: Voice Dream Reader

• Book: The Three-Body Problem (The Three-Body Problem Series, 1) by Cixin Liu

• Book: Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career by Herminia Ibarra

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