When I talk with fellow entrepreneurs, asking whether they are happy or not, the answers are most typically “just okay,” “could’ve been better,” and “don’t ask about it.” Of course, I can’t give you some stats as it’s not a poll. However, it’s probably safe to say that many entrepreneurs I know are having this somewhat negative sentiment about their entrepreneurial journey.
I can’t say I am surrounded with people with negative attitude toward business and life, although I admit that some of the people I know just love to rant and whine about their situations, about not being able to get out of a rut and so on.
While so many motivators are preaching about success and happiness, it’s clear that those two are the main issues we face – in business and in life. Want some stats? Here’s a different stats I have that might interest you…
Okay – these stats are not from a survey or a research. It is actually from the personal development videos I displayed here on Noobpreneur.com. If you noticed, scrolling down through this page will lead to a cool motivational video. I’ve displayed 2 different video so far, track the results, and get this: The video about finding happiness is having 3 times as much view rate as the success stories video. The happiness video gets 1.5 percent of view rate; the success video gets 0.5 percent of view rate. It’s a fact that is difficult to ignore, don’t you think?
View rate is a percentage of people who watch the video (by pressing the play button) from the total impressions received by the video. The average impressions of both video are similar – so, it’s probably safe to assume that “finding happiness” is much more popular than “finding success.”
With our readers are mostly business owners and those interested in entrepreneurship, it’s also probably safe to say that “happiness” is more important to entrepreneurs than “success.”
What gives? Are people that unhappy? Are entrepreneurs that unhappy?
Do you want to be happy or successful?
Okay, some people would say, “both!” – I would to, but that’s only present in an ideal world. In real life, you often need to “choose” between happiness and success.
If you asked me, this time, I would go with the crowd; I would choose happiness over success. Why? To me, it’s simple: You can’t buy happiness. No matter how much money you have or how successful your business is, if you are not happy, then those don’t matter much anymore.
You see, there are people who are making ends meet, working hard to live a decent living, yet they are happy and fulfilled. On contrary, there are billionaires who feel very, very lonely because they don’t have a single person they can trust, simply because who they know are those who have different intention in their minds. Yes, when you have plenty of money, you suddenly get more friends – people seem keen to befriend you.
You know what I mean? Success won’t give you the happiness you want. In fact, I started to believe that happiness has got nothing to do with success. Okay, success is an achievement, and achieving something gives you happiness – but that’s temporary, really. It’s like when you are hungry, you are given a hearty, delicious meal. It’s great, but it’s only temporary – and it’s often bad for your health…
With that being said, entrepreneurs are probably pursuing everlasting happiness from their businesses. That’s why when business downturn struck, they lose their means to pursue of happiness.
You’ve got to find ways to make your entrepreneurial journey a pleasant one.
What should I do next?
From my experience, you and I should find ways to change our mindset. To do so, you can’t do it alone. You need mentors – the right ones, that is. Want some suggestions? Try finding out more about my “virtual” mentors, Robert Kiyosaki, Yaro Starak and Tim Ferriss.
Well, you might want to visit Noobpreneur.com often in the upcoming week as I will address the issue of success and happiness from an entrepreneur perspective.
I am not a “certified” motivator. However, I’ve been in the ups and down of business in my short 7 years of entrepreneurial journey, learning via many trials and errors. So, what I can offer you is the lessons I learned while driving on the bumpy but exciting road called entrepreneurship.
So, again, check us out often – especially the upcoming week – and see whether we can help you out in your entrepreneurial journey!
Ivan Widjaya
Pursuing happiness