Leadership, Happiness, and Your Start-Up Life

The author is a professor at both the Harvard Kennedy School, and Harvard Business School, “where instead of covering traditional businesslike subjects such as finance and accounting, I teach happiness from a scientific perspective.” Scientific research shows that some rewards that people strive for, especially among executives and leaders, may no longer be helpful or meaningful to us. This notion takes on added significance as people age, especially in midlife, and strive for meaning, purpose, and satisfaction. He describes the “start-up life,” writing that “if you treat your life the way a great entrepreneur treats an exciting start-up enterprise, your life will be happier, more meaningful, and more successful than it otherwise would be.” This includes whether or not to choose to become a boss, noting that it can be a lonely endeavor. He provides, in his words, three guidelines for planning your future: (1) Some people should avoid leadership; (2) If you do take the job, be ready; and (3) Don’t take the top job if you’re not willing to take a temporary hit to your happiness. “Humans get satisfaction,” he concludes, “not from arriving at a destination, but rather, from making tangible progress toward it.”