Happiness as a Science

Business school graduates succeed in business and become successful leaders in social life. Are they happy? Does money give power, success and happiness? If you have no money at all, it is hard to be happy. If you have it, how much do you need to be happy? And how much success do you need to tell yourself ‘Enough!’ at the end of your life? How much is "necessary" and "enough"?

Are they happy? Does money give power, success and happiness? If you have no money at all, it is hard to be happy. If you have it, how much do you need to be happy? And how much success do you need to tell yourself ‘Enough!’ at the end of your life? How much is “necessary” and “enough”? How can it be measured? How far should any of us go in the pursuit of success if the next day nobody needs it any more? Houses are blown up, books are not read, theories become outdated, dresses get out of fashion and you have already devoted your life to it! Is it enough of us? Should we run ahead of others to come to the finish last?! “Just Enough”?“Just Enough” is the name of the book written by Howard Stevenson, the author and the teacher of the program that I listened to last summer in Harvard.

Professor Stevenson is a successful and experienced businessman, one of the HBS Heads, responsible for the school’s financial position. It is Howard who knows what the feeling of “Just enough” means for a businessman. This book and part of the program became very important to me and I want to share this secret with you.

I began looking for a Russian equivalent to this capacious English word “enough”. It is something of two sides: from above and from below, it is enough to survive and it is enough because it is too much.

To write the book and to answer all these questions, which became more problematic at the times of changes, the authors Laura Nash and Howard Stevenson carried out in-depth research about successful people. As a result, the Model of Happiness in four basic measures has been created. The easiest way is to measure the success. How much have you achieved in comparison with those, who are trying to do the same? So the first measure of success is Achievement. It is something we all pursue, we think that it is a little more and we would get it…one more diploma, one more million, one more trip, we want to say something else, discuss something, meet someone!.. The second measure is Happiness. It is when you feel you are happy, satisfied, and enjoying the process. Certainly, the result matters, but the process... One should check this feeling from time to time. If you feel uncomfortable, you feel that something is going wrong, that means you might be wearing someone else’s dress. It is time you changed something.

The third measure is Significance. It is why we forget about weariness, it is possible to be significant for people around you. You can live for the others, you can make other people happy, you can be useful for close people and indispensable for colleagues. You can also be satisfied looking at the results of your work and you can be pleased with the recognition that it has brought. Is it about you? I certainly know some people for whom this measurement became the most important one.

And what about other measures?..

It is necessary to think how to go down to mankind history. You should think of a heritage, they call it Legacy. There are a lot of examples when people were happy to be confident that their descendants would read, listen to and enjoy what their ancestors had created. These heroes went through lots of difficulties in their lives, they were outsiders of society but they were happy with their belief! Religion as well as spiritual creativity helps people to go through physical suffering for the sake of a sacred belief.

All these stories and ideas of Harvard graduates reminded me of our Russian merchants, who created museums, galleries, supported art, science and built churches.

 At the interview for the program for businessmen one of the candidates said that he could not watch a collective farm near his holiday home being destroyed, so he bought it and turned into a prosperous business. There are lots of crops growing on the fields now and in the stables there are happy cows, giving milk regularly!

The authors call their model “a kaleidoscope of life”. Do you remember this magic toy from your childhood? Turn it – and the whole picture changes! The more colourful pieces there are in each department, the brighter the picture and the more interesting the game. 

Anna Matveyeva, our EEI graduate who created “Ideal Cup”, a chain of popular cafes in St Petersburg, called me today to tell me about quite an unexpected idea that a group of successful St Petersburg businessmen had. They decided to go to school and devote some of their time to give school children some business lessons, as pupils know very little about real business. We decided to meet soon to discuss how to do it together.

I was happy just to get a phone call from her because it is the model of happiness in four measures in practice. Our busy graduates are now pulling their happiness into this dimension. It is the investment into our common, happy future!!!