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"HEY, BILL GATES; START A HAPPINESS CORPORATION!"
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The "Hey, Bill Gates; Start a Happiness Corporation" Campaign is a project with one purpose. It exists to enlist our mass media (print, television, radio, and internet) in encouraging our world's richest and most generous philanthropist, Bill Gates, to found and run a for-profit corporation with the sole purpose of training people to become happier. This single page "speed-search" website presents concise information about happiness formatted for quick and easy exploration.
Proposal Letter. If you did not receive our introductory email, please begin your exploration here.
Press Releases To view press releases available for immediate publication
Story Ideas and Angles To review ideas and angles for presenting pieces throughout various media.
Happiness Quotes To learn what many famous, and not so famous, people have said about happiness
Happiness-Increase Experiments To learn more about how quickly and easily individuals can be trained to become happier.
Happiness Benefits To learn more about how becoming happier benefits us, our families, and our communities, in many ways.
Facts about Happiness To learn more about how happy we are, who among us are happiest, and what makes us happy and what does not, etc.
Key Contacts To contact the top happiness researchers in the world for more information.
Site Map To see all of the features of this "speed search" website in outline form.
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FACTS ABOUT HAPPINESS
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How Happy are We? Happiness and Money Happiness-Increase Experiment Data Miscellaneous Information
Study after study has found that happiness is virtually everyone's most important personal goal in life.
Americans consider happiness more important to them than money, moral goodness, and even going to Heaven.
King. L. A. & Napa, C. K. (1998). What makes a life good? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 156-165
When asked what will make them happier, Americans overwhelmingly say "more money"
14 percent of the nations on Earth are less than 50 percent happy.
Deiner E., Fujita F., & Sandvik E. (1994) What subjective well-being researchers can tell emotion researchers about affect. In N. Frijda (Ed.). Proceedings of the 8th meeting of the International Society for Research on Emotions (pp. 30-35), Storrs, CT: ISRE Publications
The current level of happiness in our world is under 65 percent.
American children feel happy 52 percent of the time, neutral 29 percent of the time, and unhappy 19 percent of the time.
Larson, R. (1989). Daily emotional states as reported by children and adolescents. Child Development, 60. 1250-1260
More intelligent people are not happier than less intelligent people.
Sigelman, L. (1981). Is ignorance bliss? A reconsideration of the folk wisdom. Human Relations, 34, 965-974
Americans' personal income has increased more than 2 1/2 times over the last 50 years, but their happiness level has remained the same.
Myers, D. G. (2000). The funds, friends and fairth of happy people. American Psychologist, 55, 56-67
Americans earning more that $10 million annually are only slightly happier than average Americans.
Deiner, E. Horowitz, J. & Emmons, R. A. (1985). Happiness of the very wealthy. Social Indicators Research, 16, 263-274.
In the United States, the average happiness level is 69 percent.
People in ill health and physically less attractive people are just as happy as average individuals.
Diener E. , Wolsic, B., & Fujita (1995). Physical attractiveness and subjective-wellbeing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 120-129.
All demographic variables combined, including age, sex, income, race, and education, are responsible for only 15 percent of the difference in happiness levels between individuals.
Argyle, M. (1999). Causes and correlates of happiness. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Schwarz (Eds.). Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology. New York; Russell Sage Foundation
In the United States, about 20 percent of the population is at least 85 percent happy.
Between 40 to 55 percent of a person's current happiness level is determined by their genes.
Lykken, D., & Tellegen, A. (1996). Happiness is a stochastic phenomenon. Psychological Science, 7, 186-189.
37 percent of the people on Forbes list of Wealthiest Americans are less happy than the average American.
Lottery winners are only slightly happier than average individuals.
Brickman, P., Coates, D., & Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Happiness Increase Experiments published in peer review journal have empirically demonstrated that individuals can be trained to be 25 percent happier through various training programs from two to ten weeks in length.
Although Americans have over 2 1/2 times more spending power now than fifty years ago, we are no happier, and depression is far more widespread.
At any given time, one forth of Americans are mildly depressed.
Senior Citizens are not less happy than younger people.
Above the poverty line, having more money has little or no effect on one's level of happiness.
Genetic Research has found that happiness level is 50 percent hereditary.
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HAPPINESS BENEFITS
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BENEFITS LIST
By Bill Gates selling happiness as a product, he would be selling consumers much more than success in achieving their strongest desire and goal in life - happiness. Extensive research shows that as individuals become happier, they reap physical, emotional, financial, social, ethical, and societal rewards. Following is a fully referenced list of published studies demonstrating how becoming happier helps people to become physically and emotionally healthier, more economically productive, more pro-social, and more charitable, etc..
A growing body of research has shown that as people become happier, they become:
More likely to benefits their families, their communities and society at large
Lyubomirsky, S., King, L. A., & Diener, E. (2002). Is happiness a good thing? The benefits of long-term positive affect. Manuscript in preparation.
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More likely to be more cooperative, prosocial, and charitable
Cunningham, M. R., Shaffer, D. R., Barbee, A. P., Wolff, P. L., & Kelley, D. J. (1990). Separate processes in the relation of elation and depression to helping: Social versus personal concerns. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 26, 13-33.
Isen, A. M. (1970). Success, failure, attention and reaction to others: The warm glow of success. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 15, 294-301.
Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1996). Further examining the American dream: Differential correlates of intrinsic and extrinsic goals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 280-287.
Williams, S., & Shiaw, W. T. (1999). Mood and organizational citizenship behavior: The effects of positive affect on employee organizational citizenship behavior intentions. Journal of Psychology, 133, 656-668.
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More likely to enjoy superior work outcomes
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Greater Creativity
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Increased Productivity
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Higher Quality of Work
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Higher Income
Estrada, C., Isen, A. M., & Young, M. J. (1994). Positive affect influences creative problem solving and reported source of practice satisfaction in physicians. Motivation and Emotion, 18, 285-299.
George, J. M. (1995). Leader positive mood and group performance: The case of customer service. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 25, 778-795.
Staw, B. M., Sutton, R. I., & Pelled, L. H. (1995). Employee positive emotion and favorable outcomes at the workplace. Organization Science, 5, 51-71.
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More likely to have a stronger immune system
Dillon, K. M., Minchoff, B., & Baker, K. H. (1985). Positive emotional states and enhancement of the immune system. International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 15, 13-18.
Stone, A. A., Neale, J. M., Cox, D. S., Napoli, A., Vadlimarsdottir, V., & Kennedy-Moore, E. (1994). Daily events are associated with a secretory immune response to an oral antigen in men. Health Psychology, 13, 440-446.
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More likely to live longer
Danner, D. D., Snowdon, D. A., & Friesen, W. V. (2001). Positive emotions in early life and longevity: Findings from the nun study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 804-813.
Maruta, T., Colligan, R. C., Malinchoc, M., & Offord, K. P. (2000). Optimists vs. pessimists: Survival rate among medical patients over a 30-year period. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 75, 140-143.
Ostir, G. V., Markides, K. S., Black, S. A., & Goodwin, J. S. (2000). Emotional well-being predicts subsequent functional independence and survival. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 48, 473-478.
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More likely to enjoy larger social rewards
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More likely to marry
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Less likely to become divorced
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More likely to have more friends
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More likely to enjoy stronger social support
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More likely to enjoy richer social interactions
Berry, D. S., & Hansen, J. S. (1996). Positive affect, negative affect, and social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 796-809.
Harker , L., & Keltner, D. (2001). Expressions of positive emotions in women’s college yearbook pictures and their relationship to personality and life outcomes across adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 112-124.
Marks, G. N., & Fleming, N. (1999). Influences and consequences of well-being among Australian young people: 1980-1995. Social Indicators Research, 46, 301-323.
Okun, M. A., Stock, W. A., Haring, M. J., & Witter, R. A. (1984). The social activity/subjective well-being relation: A quantitative synthesis. Research on Aging, 6, 45-65.
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More likely to be more emotionally healthy
Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 542-575.
Jahoda, M. (1958). Current concepts of positive mental health. New York: Bax
Menninger, K. A. (1930). What is a healthy mind? In N. A. Crawford and K. A. Menninger (Eds.), The healthy-minded child. New York: Coward-McCann.
Taylor, S. E., & Brown, J. D. (1988). Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 193-210.
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More likely to be more active, and have greater energy and flow
Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Wong, M. M. (1991). The situational and personal correlates of happiness: A cross-national comparison. In F. Strack, M. Argyle, & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Subjective well-being: An interdisciplinary perspective (pp. 193-212). Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press.
Mishra, S. (1992). Leisure activities and life satisfaction in old age: A case study of retired government employees living in urban areas. Activities, Adaptation and Aging, 16, 7-26.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., McIntyre, C. W., & Hamaker, S. (1992). Affect, personality, and social activity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 1011-1025.
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Less likely to show symptoms of psychopathology
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Less Depression
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Less Suicide
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Less Paranoia
Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Very happy people. Psychological Science, 13, 81-84.
Koivumaa-Honkanen, H., Honkanen, R., Viinamaeki, H., Heikkilae, K., Kaprio, J., & Koskenvuo, M. (2001). Life satisfaction and suicide: A 20-year follow-up study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 433-439.
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More likely to exhibit greater self-control and coping abilities
Aspinwall, L. G. (1998). Rethinking the role of positive affect in self-regulation. Motivation and Emotion, 22, 1-32.
Carver, C. S., Pozo, C., Harris, S. D., Noriega, V., Scheier, M., Robinson, D., Ketcham, A., Moffat Jr., A., & Clark, K. (1993). How coping mediates the effect of optimism on distress: A study of women with early stage breast cancer. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 375-390.
Chen, C. C., David, A., Thompson, K., Smith, C., Lea, S., & Fahy, T. (1996). Coping strategies and psychiatric morbidity in women attending breast assessment clinics. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 40, 265-270.
Fredrickson, B. L., & Joiner, T. (2002). Positive emotions trigger upward spirals toward emotional well-being. Psychological Science 13, 172-175.
Keltner, D., & Bonanno, G. A. (1997). A study of laughter and dissociation: Distinct correlates of laughter and smiling during bereavement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 687-702.
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This list, and the citations, were excerpted from Ken Sheldon, Sonja Lyubomirsky, and David Schkade’s 2003 manuscript submitted for publication - “Pursuing Happiness: The architecture of sustainable change.”
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HAPPINESS-INCREASE EXPERIMENTS
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To demonstrate how quickly and easily marketed happiness training classes can increase consumers' levels of happiness, published happiness-increase experiments are presented below. Highlighted in this section are the different strategies used, the length of time these strategies were implemented, and the average increases in happiness reported by subjects.
Citations for each of the studies follow their summaries. We highly recommend Dr. Michael Fordyce's 14 fundamentals of Happiness program as the method of increasing happiness that is most conducive to marketed happiness training courses.
Training in Fundamentals of Happiness
Fordyce, M. W. (1977). Development of a program to increase happiness. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 24, 511-521.
Fordyce, M. W. (1983). A program to increase happiness: Further studies. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 30, 483-498.
Group Discussion and Happiness Affirmations
Lichter, S, Haye, K., & Kammann, R. (1980). Increasing happiness through cognitive retraining. New Zealand Psychologist, 9, 57-64.
Psychotherapy
Fava, G. (1999). Well-being therapy: Conceptual and technical issues.
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 68, 171-179.
Fava, G. A., Rafanelli, C., Cazzaro, M., Conti, S., & Grandi, S. (1998). Well-being
therapy: A novel psychotherapeutic approach for residual symptoms of affective
disorders. Psychological Medicine, 28, 475-480.
Gratitude
Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2001). Counting blessings versus burdens:
An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life.
Manuscript submitted for publication.
Thoughtful Self-Reflection
King, L. A. (2001). The health benefits of writing about life goals. Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 798-807.
King, L. A., & Miner, K. N. (2000). Writing about the perceived benefits
of traumatic experiences: Implications for physical health.
Personality an Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 220-230.
Sousa, L., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2002). The medium is the message: The costs and
benefits of thinking, writing, and talking about life's triumphs and defeats.
Manuscript in preparation, Department of Psychology, University of California,
Riverside.
Forgiveness
McCullough, M. E., Pargament, K. I., & Thoresen, C. E. (Eds.) (2000). Forgiveness:
Theory, research, and practice. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Becoming More Optimistic
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman.
DeNeve, K. M., & Cooper, H. (1998). The happy personality: A meta-analysis
of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin,
124, 197-229.
Grob, A., Stetsenko, A., Sabatier, C., Botcheva, L., & Macek, P. (1999). A
cross-national model of subjective well-being in adolescence. In F. D. Alsaker, A.
Flammer, & N. Bodmer (Eds.), The adolescent experience: European and
American adolescents in the 1990s (pp. 115-130). New York: Erlbaum.
McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (1986). Personality, coping, and coping
effectiveness in an adult sample. Journal of Personality, 54, 385-405
Seligman, M. E. P. (1991). Learned optimism. New York: A. A. Knopf.
Stones, M. J., & Kozma, A. (1986). "Happy are they who are happy…": A test
between two causal models of happiness and its correlates. Experimental Aging
Research, 12, 23-29.
Taylor, S. E. & Brown, J. D. (1988). Illusion and well-being: A social
psychological perspective on mental health. Psychological Bulletin,
103, 193-210
Engaging in social activities
Larson, R. W. (1990). The solitary side of life: An examination of the time people
spend alone from childhood to old age. Developmental Review, 10, 155-183.
Watson, D. (1988). Intraindividual and interindividual analyses of positive and
negative affect: Their relation to health complaints, perceived stress, and daily
activities. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1020-1030.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., McIntyre, C. W., & Hamaker, S. (1992). Affect,
personality, and social activity. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 63, 1011-1025.
Avoiding comparisons with others
Lyubomirsky, S., & Ross, L. (1997). Hedonic consequences of social
comparison: A contrast of happy and unhappy people. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 1141-1157.
Cognitive-Behavavioral strategies (choosing more positive perspectives)
Gillham, J. E., & Reivich, K. J. (1999). Prevention of depressive symptoms in
school children: A research update. Psychological Science, 10, 461-462.
Gloaguen, V., Cottraux, J., Cucherat, M., & Blackburn, I. (1998). A meta-analysis of
the effects of cognitive therapy in depressed patients. Journal of Affective
Disorders, 49, 59-72.
Jacobson, N. S., Dobson, K. S., Truax, P. A., Addis, M. E., Koerner, K.,
Gollan, J. K., Gortner, E., & Prince, S. E. (1996). A component analysis
of cognitive-behavioral treatment for depression. Journal of
Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 295-304.
Setting and pursuing life goals
Brunstein, J. C., Schultheiss, O. C., & Grassman, R. (1998). Personal goals and emotional well-being: The moderating role of motive dispositions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 494-508.
Emmons, R. A. (1989). The personal strivings approach to personality. In L.A. Pervin (Ed.), Goal concepts in personality and social psychology (pp.). Hillsdale, N. J.: Erlbaum.
Emmons, R. A., & King, L. A. (1988). Conflict among personal strivings: Immediate and long-term implications for psychological and physical well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1040-1048.
Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1993). A dark side of the American dream: Correlates of financial success as a central life aspiration. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 410-422.
Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1996). Further examining the American dream: Differential correlates of intrinsic and extrinsic goals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 280-287.
Sheldon, K. M., & Kasser, T. (1995). Coherence and congruence: Two aspects of personality integration. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 68, 531-543.
Sheldon, K. M., & Elliot, A. J. (1999). Goal striving, need-satisfaction, and longitudinal well-being: The Self-Concordance Model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 482-497.
Sheldon, K. M., Kasser, T., Smith, K., & Share, T. (2002). Personal goals and psychological growth: Testing an intervention to enhance goal-attainment and personality integration. Journal of Personality, 70, 5-31.
Having more "flow" experiences
Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Wong, M. M. (1991). The situational and personal correlates of happiness: A cross-national comparison. In F. Strack, M. Argyle, & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Subjective well-being: An interdisciplinary perspective (pp. 193-212). Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press.
Being more autonomous and competent
Langer, E. J., & Rodin, J. (1976). The effects of choice and enhanced
personal responsibility for the aged: A field experiment in an
institutional setting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34,
191-198.
Reich, J. W., & Zautra, A. (1981). Life events and personal causation. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 1002-1012.
Reis, H. T., Sheldon, K. M., Ryan, R. M., Gable, S. L., & Roscoe, J (2000). Daily well-being: The role of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 419-43.
Schulz, R. (1976). Effects of control and predictability on the physical and psychological well-being of the institutionalized aged. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 33, 563-573.
Sheldon, K. M., Ryan, R. M., & Reis, H. T. (1996). What makes for a good day? Competence and autonomy in the day and in the person. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 1270-1279.
Avoiding maladaptive behaviors
Lykken, D. (2000). Happiness: The nature and nurture of joy and contentment. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.
This list, and the citations, were excerpted from Ken Sheldon, Sonja Lyubomirsky, and David Schkade’s 2003 manuscript submitted for publication - “Pursuing Happiness: The architecture of sustainable change.”
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STORY IDEAS AND ANGLES
Captions
THEMES
Happiness is Hot, but Who's Selling it?
Happiness is now everywhere the media. It's on the cover of Oprah's "O," It was recently presented before Britain's Royal Society. Martin Seligman is training hundreds of happiness coaches every few months. But where does the average person go to get happier? A huge market is being created, and no one is offering the product.
Will Making Our World Happier Make our World Better?
Study after study shows that as people become happier they become more charitable, more cooperative, healthier, more pro-social, etc. Happy people don't seem to be the troublemakers of the world. Will the success of a global initiative to help people become substantially, and lastingly, happier bring about a much more ethical and compassionate world?
They Sell Everything Else, Why Not Happiness?
Whether it's food, merchandise, convenience, or a dream, corporations throughout the world meet consumers' ever changing demands with a vast array of products and services. Of course the only reason anyone buys anything is to either hold on to, or increase, their pleasure and happiness. So, with most people succeeding so marginally at their most cherished desire, happiness, why isn't anyone selling it to them directly as a product?
Creating a market through a Happiness Documentary
All of us want happiness, but few of us really understand it. The result is a world filled with many unhappy people, and an average global happiness level of under 65 percent. Michael Moore created the successful documentary, Bowling for Columbine, that addressed the profound conundrum of America's epidemic of violence. Researchers have been studying happiness for four decades, and have accumulated a mountain of valuable information uncovering its secrets. The time is ripe for a motion picture mogul to take on the question of happiness, and present to the international public a knowledgeable and optimistic documentary explaining happiness and how it is best achieved.
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CAPTIONS
Will the Media Champion Happiness?
Selling Happiness
Will Gates Found Happiness Inc.?
The Happiness Business
Happiness Beckons Gates
Can Gates Sell Happiness?
Making Money Making People Happy
Happiness at Corporate America's Door
Happiness: A new Industry?
The Media Champions Happiness
Who Will Pay to Become Happier?
Birth of a Happy New Industry?
The Happiness Trade
Bill Gates: Global Happiness Source?
Making Consumers Happier
The Media's Happy Message for Bill Gates
A Happy Route to a Better World
Will Gates Be the King of Happiness?
When Happiness Comes a Calling
The Happy Campaign
Will Happiness Reach Bill Gates Through the Media?
Can Happiness be Bought and Sold?
If it Feels Good, Sell it!
Happy Days are Now for Sale
Bill Gates' New Calling?
Happiness, Inc.
Happiness for Sale
The Media as Happiness Messenger?
Buying our Heart's Desire
Bill Gates as Mr. Feelgood?
The Other Campaign
Will the Media Run with Happiness?
Themes
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Can Gates Sell Happiness?
Buying our Greatest Desire
Will Consumers Buy Happiness?
The Happiest Product
Creating a Happiness Market
Why Sell Happiness?
Finding Happiness at the Mall
The Most Philanthropic Campaign
Happiness Maverick Gates?
Sell Me Your Finest Happiness
A Happy Campaign to Change the World
Will Happiness Sell?
Is Bill Gates the Way to Happiness?
Smiling all the way to the Bank
Buying our way to Heaven
A New Gates Venture?
Happiness, Get Your Happiness!
Selling the Happy Cure
The Gates of Happiness?
Can happiness Change the World?
Themes
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HAPPINESS QUOTES
"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature." ~ Marcus Aurelius
"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence." ~ Aristotle
"So much sadness exists in the world that we are all under obligation to contribute as much joy as lies within our powers." ~ John Sutherland Bonnell
"There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness." ~ Countess of Blessington
"Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response." ~ Mildred Barthel
"We all want to be happy, and we're all going to die. You might say those are the only two unchallengeably true facts that apply to every human being on this planet." ~ William Boyd
"Joy has nothing to do with material things, or with man's outward circumstance...A man living in the lap of luxury can be wretched, and a man in the depths of poverty can overflow with joy." ~ William Barclay
"Happiness is a journey, not a destination; happiness is to be found along the way not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it's too late. The time for happiness is today not tomorrow." ~ Quoted by Paul H Dunn
"Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy." ~ Wayne Dyer
"Being happy is something you have to learn. I often surprise myself by saying "Wow, this is it. I guess I'm happy. I got a home I love. A career that I love. I'm even feeling more and more at peace with myself." If there's something else to happiness, let me know. I'm ambitious for that, too." ~ Harrison Ford
"There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means -- either may do -- the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier." ~ Benjamin Franklin
"Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get." ~ Dave Gardner
"The happiest people seem to be those who have no particular reason for being so except that they are so." ~ William Ralph Inge
"It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquillity and occupation, which give happiness." ~ Thomas Jefferson
"How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure." ~ William James
"We always have enough to be happy if we are enjoying what we do have--and not worrying about what we don't have." ~ Ken Keyes, Jr.
"People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be." ~ Abraham Lincoln
"Life is made up of small pleasures. Happiness is made up of those tiny successes. The big ones come too infrequently. And if you don't collect all these tiny successes, the big ones don't really mean anything." ~ Norman Lear
"The purpose of life is the expansion of happiness." ~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
"Happiness doesn't come from doing what we like to do but from liking what we have to do." ~ Wilfred A. Peterson
"My Happiness is not the means to my end. It is the end." ~ Ayn Rand
"Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same." ~ Francesca Reigler, artist
"Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can only be felt if you don't set any condition." ~ Arthur Rubinstein
"The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy; I mean that if you are happy you will be good." ~ Bertrand Russell
"My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am doing right?" ~ Charles M Schulz
"Happiness is the only sanction of life; where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment." ~ George Santayana
"A person will be called to account on Judgement Day for every permissible thing he might have enjoyed but did not." ~ Talmud
"If you want to be happy, be." ~ Leo Tolstoy
"I've learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances." ~ Martha Washington
"Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected." ~ George Washington
"Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier." ~ Margaret Young
"The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach." ~ Lin Yutang
Most quotes excerpted from happiness-is-online.com
PROPOSAL LETTER
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Dear Mass Media Professional;
I’m writing to offer you a great story. What almost all of us want most in life is happiness, but very few of us are very happy. Here in the U.S., the average person scores 69 on their happiness, and is only happy 54 percent of the time. In fact, on any given day, one quarter of us are actually mildly depressed. Why is this? 40 years of research on happiness (subjective well-being) has shown that our number one strategy for getting happier – getting more money – hardly works at all.
Not only are 37 percent of the people on Forbes’ list of wealthiest Americans less happy than the average person, according to the latest poll by World Values Surveys (based at Michigan State University), the happiest country in the world is now Nigeria, followed by Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, and Puerto Rico. We Americans come in 16th on the list.
While the average person knows very little about happiness, 25 years ago, psychologists learned through experiments how to help people become much happier. In fact even the first of these happiness-increase experiments made its lucky subjects about 25 percent happier after just six weeks of training.
Here’s the story: Almost no one is using this research to help people get happier. Since last Spring, former American Psychological Association president, Martin E. P. Seligman has been personally training hundreds of “happiness coaches,” but getting coached in happiness is expensive, and who’s ever heard of a happiness coach?
Last May I began producing a cable television program called “The Happiness Show.” I spend most of my time trying to figure out how to best help people become happier, and I think I’ve come up with an answer. What we Americans need is for “Big Business” to sell us our happiness. People pay Berlitz language schools good money to teach them English, French, and Italian; they would pay a happiness training company good money to teach them happiness.
I’ve contacted you because, as a mass media professional, you can make big things happen with what you write. I thought to myself; what would happen if reporters from all over the country started to write about the need for happiness schools? Then I thought; the story needs a focus. What if the media launched a campaign to encourage our world’s richest and most generous philanthropist, Bill Gates, to take on the cause of happiness, not as a charity but as a business? Bill Gates has more than enough money to set up a nationwide chain of happiness schools. He also has more than enough money to saturate the media with advertisements promoting this new happiness training business.
My guess is that he could offer classes to about twenty people at a time, and charge them each $300 for six weeks of happiness training. The result would be that his customers would become about 25 percent happier, and Mr. Gates would gross $6,000, each time.
Yes, this Gates angle is quirky, but as a story, that would be its great appeal. Happiness is hot now; just check out Oprah’s magazine “O”’s April cover story. To help you see if this story is for you, I’ve set up a web site that should give you more than enough information and contacts (with emails and phone numbers) to make for a truly interesting and timely piece. There you’ll find a collection of happiness facts, and sections on happiness increase experiments, documented benefits of becoming happier, happiness quotations, and even a “Story Angles and Themes” section that includes captions and press releases.
It’s a shame that so many of us are less happy than we could be simply because we’ve never been taught how to become happier. It’s a shame that so many of us could be taught to become much happier, but business hasn’t yet realized that many of us would eagerly pay for this instruction. I hope you’ll check out my web site, and then write a story that will inspire Bill Gates to create a happiness training business.
Sincerely,
George Ortega
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To learn more about the campaign, please email me at Georgeo57@highstream.net , call me at (914) 946-1824, or write me at 2 Old Mamaroneck Road, 3I, White Plains, New York, 10605
Listed below are most of the top happiness researchers in the world, with a brief description of some of their major work.
Martin E. P. Seligman (215) 898-7173 seligman@psych.upenn.edu
During the last year Dr. Seligman has trained over 500 happiness coaches through his Authentic Happiness Coaching program. Dr. Seligman is past president of the American Psychological Association, and was recently voted the 31st most influential psychologist of all time. He recently published the best selling book Authentic Happiness.
Daniel Kahneman (609) 258-2280 kahneman@Princeton.EDU
Dr. Kahneman, a top happiness researcher, was awarded the 2002 Noble prize in economics.
Ruut Veenhoven (..31) 10 4082102 veenhoven@fsw.eur.nl
Dr. Veenhoven, from The Netherlands, is the leading authority on happiness throughout the world, and the founder of the World Database of Happiness.
David Myers (616)395-7730 dmyers@hope.edu
Dr. Myers, author of the most popular college psychology textbook, is also author of The Pursuit of Happiness, an excellent review on happiness research.
Ed Diener (217) 333-4804 ediener@s.psych.uiuc.edu
Dr. Diener is the most prolific happiness researcher in the world, and collaborates extensively with all other happiness researchers.
Ken Sheldon (573) 884-1547 SheldonK@missouri.edu
Dr. Sheldon is pioneering a new wave of happiness-increase experimentation, and demonstrating that happiness level gains can remain in effect long-term.
Sonja Lyubomirsky (909) 787-5041 sonja@citrus.ucr.edu
Dr. Lyubomirsky is a new happiness increase researcher working to encourage further work on happiness increase methodologies.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (909) 607-3901 miska@CGU.EDU
Dr. Csikszentmihalyi is referred to by Dr. Seligman as the "brains" behind the new Positive Psychology movement that has as its goal the promotion of happiness increase.
Robert Emmons (530)752-8844 raemmons@ucdavis.edu
Dr. Emmons is another new happiness increase researcher who has empirically demonstrated the power of gratitude in increasing happiness.
Ron Inglehart (734) 936-1767 rfi@umich.edu
Dr. Inglehart is director of the World Values Surveys, the most authoritative happiness polling organization in the world. His organization's latest report (to be released April, 2004) reveals that the happiest countries in the world are Nigeria, Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, and Puerto Rico.
Bruce Headey brucewh@unimelb.edu.au
Dr. Headey, from Australia, is the co-author of the very influential book Understanding Happiness (currently out of print).
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