We recently read an article in which Warren Buffett gave some great advice on how to achieve happiness.
We wanted to share our take on the article with you.
How to Achieve Happiness
Buffett’s main message is that in order to be happy, you should do something that you enjoy your whole life.
And he lives this principle.
It is well known that he loves his job, and that he is grateful he gets to do it.
He also mentions the importance of working with people you like.
If he doesn’t like someone, he won’t work with them, no matter the amount of money he could make.
That means that he is willing to forego millions, maybe even billions, if he doesn’t like someone.
As people who know how exhausting it is to work with assholes, we understand where he is coming from.
But Should you Follow Your Passion?
Buffett’s advice could fall into the category of “follow your passion” and “do something you love”.
It’s popular advice these days.
The problem with the words “passion” and “love” is that they are very loaded.
A lot of people don’t even know what their passion is.
And if they do, they might not be able to turn it into a career.
It’s difficult to get paid for sitting at home all day, eating candy.
In our personal opinion, “love” and “passion” might be words that are a bit strong when you talk about work.
And that’s why we like that Buffett uses the word “enjoy”.
It’s not as loaded.
Maybe you work in digital marketing; you enjoy it, and you are good at it, but you wouldn’t use the word “passion” or “love” to describe it.
That’s why we think it could be helpful to change our perspective.
Instead of looking for our passion, we could look for things that interest us; things that we enjoy doing.
And from there we can build our passion.
We do that by becoming better at the thing we enjoy doing, and then in turn we use the skills we learn to add value to the people around us.
We therefore believe it’s better to think about it as building our passion, as opposed to finding our passion.
The Japanese Concept of Ikigai
There is a Japanese expression called “Ikigai”, which can be roughly translated to “your reason for being” - the thing that gets you up in the morning.
To find Ikigai you need to be at the intersection of doing something you love, something you are good at, something the world needs and something you can get paid for.
Source: forbes.com
The word “love” pops up here again, however it doesn’t necessarily need to be about finding a job that fits all those descriptions; it could be about moving towards it, and becoming a bit happier and more fulfilled while doing it.
Maybe it will help you find a job that you enjoy, that you are good at, that makes you feel that you are contributing to something or someone (e.g. your team), and that pays you a good salary.
Speaking as people who have experienced the detriments of being in an unfulfilling job, we think it’s important to heed Buffett’s advice, and take the idea of Ikigai to heart.
We think it’s especially important in a world where people are working longer hours, and are more stressed than ever.
Your fulfilment and success depends on it.
All the best,
Lars and Roshni