Jan 6, 2015

Reference: https://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work

We all chase success hoping it will make us happy:

1. I’ll be happy once I get that promotion.
2. I’ll be happy once I get that raise.
3. I’ll be happy once I lose 15 pounds.

But the research shows that isn’t true. You achieve a goal and you’re briefly happier… but then you’re looking toward the next big thing.

What Shawn’s research showed was when you flip the formula and focus on increasing happiness, you end up increasing success.

MET Life saw such great results among happy salespeople that they tried an experiment: they started hiring people based on optimism.

And that was even if those people performed poorly on the standard industry “aptitude test.” What was the result?

How can this be? Shawn explained that intelligence and technical skills only predict 25% of success: