According to so many people, I do not enjoy my life, I make so much so I should go out and spend money in many things which they think they like and they hope I too will like and then they assume that I will be enjoying my life.
Most of the time I pass off these moments with a make over smile on my lips, really stretching my cheeks, but very rare I when I keep hearing this stuff from so many people around me, perhaps I ask questions to myself, are they right.
Something very similar happened very recent and I am in such an age where sometimes I need to verify, things I know are right or wrong. I heard this for long and decided that ok let me do some research, real good work and what ever is the outcome I will follow that at least for next 10 years. I am expecting that perception along with economy and concepts will change in 10 years. I believe that’s quite realistic. First thing was to find out what I want to achieve. I kept it very simple “I want to be happy”.
So the question was to identify the general activities or the conditions or mental situations when you feel happy and satisfied. This went very subjective, as different people can be happy in “N” number of different situations and mental states.
So I reduced the question to “If you have more money than you require for living, then will spending your extra money on things which are not the “Need” or “Want” but you “Like” will make you happy?”
So I started with methodology for research. First go was on books, quotes, philosophies, lectures and all written knowledge. All gave me a negative result.
Then I was talking to one of my good friends and he said “May be you are playing favorites, you are picking up books which you like”. Hum that can be a valid reason for skewness of my output.
Probably I should go out and talk to people. Which people, well I guess since I want to be happy ultimately, every body in my sample space should be happy.
This was again a very subjective question, that how will you know that they are happy.
Based upon a research, I prepared some questions and I interviewed people. They never knew that they are being interviewed for a purpose. People who were very frequent in giving me this advice were the ones around me and easy to approach, so they were the beginners of my sample space.
To my surprise, none of they admitted that they are happy. I was very rude to say that how come you are not happy when you do all the stuff you tell me to do in order to be happy.
I was really confused at this point of time but I was more boosted up, the idea that this will save 10 years of confusion in my life on this point was enough to keep me working.
So I started going to people in my office. I started with my collogues. 50% of them were out as they were not happy. That makes my sample very small low. I needed more people. So I added up one more criteria, let me look for successful people and then let me try and find out if they are happy and then I can test they for my main research question.
I approached senior leadership in company. My boss agreed to help me, being one of the senior leaders she was a great resource to get people. I managed to meet people from my Company, Disneyland, and few of my company’s clients and spouse of senior leaders in my company. They all helped me to take interviews where I was not able to go and meet in person. The set of question was same and they were more effective in digging out response than me.
We all pooled up our data which included senior leaders from different organizations, my collogues and my off the work circle and friends. This sample was a mix of people from different culture and country.
We found out that 80-85% of people who are happy and in some way successful in life and have positive attitude towards life and also make more money than they need, actually do not like to spend their money on things which is not their “ Need” “ Want” but they just like that thing, or that activity. There are few things which fall in their “Hobby” and they really find pleasure in doing so and so they do spend when they have extra.
The other observation was that all these people believed in multiplying the money rather than spending it. It’s clear that the amount of money they have right now is enough for their life still they all are interested in multiplying and spending them wisely. None of them spend money to compete with others or just because the other person who is really close to them is doing it. None of these people said that their “desire” exceeds their financial sense.
All these people have different ways to be happy and none of these have “Spending money” as one of the way to be happy. One of the finance guy is happy making money in stocks and investment, the other is really happy if he goes for a bike ride every night, one of very senior leadership women becomes happy to cook for her family and kids everyday. Somebody goes back home on Friday and look at her numbers to be happy rather than going out and partying.
Inference: Possible there is a philosophy of life that :- I am an adventurer, looking for treasures.
and
Treasures differ……
Most of the time I pass off these moments with a make over smile on my lips, really stretching my cheeks, but very rare I when I keep hearing this stuff from so many people around me, perhaps I ask questions to myself, are they right.
Something very similar happened very recent and I am in such an age where sometimes I need to verify, things I know are right or wrong. I heard this for long and decided that ok let me do some research, real good work and what ever is the outcome I will follow that at least for next 10 years. I am expecting that perception along with economy and concepts will change in 10 years. I believe that’s quite realistic. First thing was to find out what I want to achieve. I kept it very simple “I want to be happy”.
So the question was to identify the general activities or the conditions or mental situations when you feel happy and satisfied. This went very subjective, as different people can be happy in “N” number of different situations and mental states.
So I reduced the question to “If you have more money than you require for living, then will spending your extra money on things which are not the “Need” or “Want” but you “Like” will make you happy?”
So I started with methodology for research. First go was on books, quotes, philosophies, lectures and all written knowledge. All gave me a negative result.
Then I was talking to one of my good friends and he said “May be you are playing favorites, you are picking up books which you like”. Hum that can be a valid reason for skewness of my output.
Probably I should go out and talk to people. Which people, well I guess since I want to be happy ultimately, every body in my sample space should be happy.
This was again a very subjective question, that how will you know that they are happy.
Based upon a research, I prepared some questions and I interviewed people. They never knew that they are being interviewed for a purpose. People who were very frequent in giving me this advice were the ones around me and easy to approach, so they were the beginners of my sample space.
To my surprise, none of they admitted that they are happy. I was very rude to say that how come you are not happy when you do all the stuff you tell me to do in order to be happy.
I was really confused at this point of time but I was more boosted up, the idea that this will save 10 years of confusion in my life on this point was enough to keep me working.
So I started going to people in my office. I started with my collogues. 50% of them were out as they were not happy. That makes my sample very small low. I needed more people. So I added up one more criteria, let me look for successful people and then let me try and find out if they are happy and then I can test they for my main research question.
I approached senior leadership in company. My boss agreed to help me, being one of the senior leaders she was a great resource to get people. I managed to meet people from my Company, Disneyland, and few of my company’s clients and spouse of senior leaders in my company. They all helped me to take interviews where I was not able to go and meet in person. The set of question was same and they were more effective in digging out response than me.
We all pooled up our data which included senior leaders from different organizations, my collogues and my off the work circle and friends. This sample was a mix of people from different culture and country.
We found out that 80-85% of people who are happy and in some way successful in life and have positive attitude towards life and also make more money than they need, actually do not like to spend their money on things which is not their “ Need” “ Want” but they just like that thing, or that activity. There are few things which fall in their “Hobby” and they really find pleasure in doing so and so they do spend when they have extra.
The other observation was that all these people believed in multiplying the money rather than spending it. It’s clear that the amount of money they have right now is enough for their life still they all are interested in multiplying and spending them wisely. None of them spend money to compete with others or just because the other person who is really close to them is doing it. None of these people said that their “desire” exceeds their financial sense.
All these people have different ways to be happy and none of these have “Spending money” as one of the way to be happy. One of the finance guy is happy making money in stocks and investment, the other is really happy if he goes for a bike ride every night, one of very senior leadership women becomes happy to cook for her family and kids everyday. Somebody goes back home on Friday and look at her numbers to be happy rather than going out and partying.
Inference: Possible there is a philosophy of life that :- I am an adventurer, looking for treasures.
and
Treasures differ……
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