Follow Your Heart -- and Listen to the New Logic

But once again, Albion's new network of colleagues came through. For several years, they'd been mulling over a way to reach out to business-school students who wanted to "do good" after they graduated. After much conversation, Albion and his colleagues hit on an idea: Launch a group called Students for Responsible Business. The mission: Form chapters at business schools throughout the country, signing up students who were looking for work that was both personally and financially rewarding.

Albion spent much of the next few years on the road, speaking at business schools across the country. He worked relentlessly -- and he had the time of his life. To keep in touch with far-flung members of the organization, which was later renamed Net Impact (www.net-impact.org), he started communicating through the Web.

Creating a newsletter seemed like a good idea, a chance to write and expound on his thoughts about corporate responsibility. So he launched "ML2: Making a Life, Making a Living," an electronic periodical that is now read by about 2.5 million students and executives in 87 countries.

Although publishing the newsletter was extremely rewarding, it wasn't making any money. And it wasn't providing Albion with a way to implement his ideas. So he then decided to use "Making a Life" as a platform for starting up a for-profit arm of Students for Responsible Business, which would help recent MBAs use their knowledge and talent to make a living and contribute to the greater good. Thus was born You & Co., which helps attract MBAs to companies that are socially responsible. He calls this new kind of recruiting "heart hunting."

At last, Albion had found a way to integrate his passion with making a living. He has come full circle. "I've realized that what I really am is an educator," he says, "someone who wants to teach and who enjoys listening to people talk about their lives."

All Work Is Work in Progress

Like any good teacher, Albion has taken away a life-altering lesson from his experience: The only way to find true "balance" is to make your passion and your work one and the same. "When my doctor asked me how many hours a week I work," says Albion, "my immediate response was, 'I don't know, John. How many hours a week do you breathe?' It's one integrated whole."

Albion is the first to admit that his personal crusade to meld his livelihood with his life is a work in progress. "We are all on a journey in which we must constantly be recasting our direction," he says.

To ensure that his own journey -- and that of the businesspeople with whom he works -- stays on true north, Albion makes one observation and poses one question: "According to the "New York Times," nature has allotted no more than 1 billion heartbeats each to all living things, from mice to elephants. What are you going to do with your billion?"

Freelance writer Anne Field (annearf@aol.com) also contributes to "Business Week" and "Worth."

Action Item: Starter Kit

The best place to get Mark Albion's take on work and life is Mark Albion's own writing.

Start with his book and audiocassette, "Making a Life, Making a Living: Reclaiming Your Purpose and Passion in Business and in Life" published by Warner Books. You can also take Albion's online seminar, offered through Quisic.

Finally, Albion's monthly Internet newsletter, "ML2: Making a Life, Making a Living," is a mix of profiles, quips, and quotes. Download it free of charge from the You & Co. Web site (www.you-company.com).

Sidebar: It's Time for a Change

"Nine out of 10 people who call me, desperately looking to change their careers, wind up staying in their jobs," says Laura Berman Fortgang, a 37-year-old career coach based in Montclair, New Jersey and the author of "Take Yourself to the Top." Most of the time, says Fortgang, people don't need a drastic overhaul to make their work rewarding; they just need some fine-tuning.

But how do you know whether you're that 10th person -- the one who needs to make a big-time career change? Fortgang suggests looking for these three signs.

Your work doesn't mesh with your life.

Here's an example: You travel every week, staying over for days at a time at sleek hotels. You used to love that life. But now you're married, and you have kids. Now living out of a suitcase isn't a blast -- it's impossible. But globe-trotting isn't optional. In other words, no travel, no job. "In that case, there's no hope," says Fortgang. If your work severely clashes with your life, you have nowhere else to go but out the door.

You've outgrown the job.