Plan Your Happiness
Jan 14th, 2008 by jared
I am sure you have heard of the story of the rich person with tons of money who is miserable or know someone like that. If you know you are going to be successful one day, you need to start planning your happiness now. When my company was making $20,000 a month, I thought to myself, “Jared, not bad. Most American small businesses don’t make this much.” Then I would see a company doing $100,000 a month, and I would become unhappy and not satisfied with where I was in life. When I started making $100,000 a month, I saw someone making $250,000 and again I became unhappy and not satisfied with where I was. This is the true entrepreneurial spirit. You always want to be doing better. You should never lose this feeling; it’s what drives you to become successful. However, this can be a dangerous slope. I know a number of people who can never be satisfied no matter how much money they have. I believe a good entrepreneur plans for his or her happiness.
Create a plan for yourself. Write down the things you want in life such as a 5,000-square-foot house, a boat, world traveling, etc. Make this goal as ambitious as you can, while at the same time be realistic about it. For instance, I would love to think that I will be as successful as Bill Gates; however, no matter how much of a superstar business person I become, a big piece of what Bill has today came from luck and timing. These are not things you can necessarily make happen for yourself. This doesn’t mean I cannot be worth a few hundred million dollars or more someday, and please understand I would never tell my kids they cannot be whatever they want to be when they grow up. Nevertheless, as an adult you need to be realistic about your goals. If you exceed them, good for you, but make sure the goals are realistic enough so that you can achieve them.
The next thing you need to do is be happy when you’ve reached your goals. Remember that the person who dies with the most toys still dies, and there aren’t 77 virgins waiting for you in heaven. Your happiness will shine on the people around you, and your family life will flourish. If you keep striving for the next level without any long-term goals, you will never be satisfied with what you have, and you could end up looking back on your life at 80 years old depressed and wondering why you didn’t stop to smell the roses and really live your life.
I plan on smelling the roses and planning huge goals very soon. I may even become famous. I will let you know when I am in the news….
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”- Winston Churchill
Amen brother George, Amen. And thank you for your business! I hope we provide you with a successful service.
I am a completely different person. I am always happy with what I’ve got. I guess that’s why I am not as successful as you are in business.
But I am still a happy guy. Everyone has a different path to happiness in life. However I agree, ambitions are very important in achieving results/success/happiness in business. Great article as usual, super J!
Happy guy, don’t forget this is a blog by an entrepreneur for an entrepreneur. I doubt buddist monks are reading this. If you are a true entrepreneur and its in your blood, it is hard to be happy when you know you can always do better. Money is nice, but the success of creating something really significant is a powerful driver. I am happy you are a happy dude, it is a lot worse than being depressed.
Jared
Well done, we share some of the same goals. But more important I was happy to see your passion for the people , success or happiness is a direct result of what you bring or give to the people that surround you.
If you give the people Freedom, they will give you hope, as such you should never manage people but moreless manage expectations.
Excellent words Eric! I really dont consider myself a boss, and my employees are more like partners. It’s a great enviornment as a result, and talented people continue to come aboard.
I’m not sure if everyone will understand this fully Jared. I have the exact same attitude and depending on who you talk to, it’s either a curse or a blessing.
True dat Ben!
I agree! Planning for and experiencing happiness is what life is all about. However, I’m not sure that I believe anyone’s successes in life come from “luck.” I would say success comes when preparation meets opportunity, along with an open mind and welcoming attitude
Nice post Jared! we should always count our blessings and only that can make us happy.
And with regards to luck, just reading on success stories of entrepreneurs will convince you that there is some sort of luck that contributed to their success. I believe that being in the right place in the right time is also considered as luck.
Wow….I’m always glad when I see entrepreneurs write post like this. It helps people to put things into the proper perspective because everybody seeks money as a means of happiness. The reality is that if we never identify what we consider success, we will float right by it looking for something else. I expressed my thoughts on this in a similar post about a year ago. It was called Why Are You an Entrepreneur. Check it out and let me know what you think.