The Happiness Advantage-- Speaker and Audience

The Happiness Advantage was written by author and happiness psychologist Shawn Achor. Achor was born and raised in Texas, but he went to college at Harvard University where he says “the Happiness Advantage was born.” He received his BA and his masters there and afterwards became a Proctor to help students navigate through life on campus, which meant he spent about 12 years living at Harvard. It was here that he began to observe the behaviors of the nation’s best and brightest, taking note of the fact that the kids were strikingly unhappy despite their very fortunate circumstances. He decided to move back home to Texas where he started his company GoodThink.org, “a happiness consulting firm,” so as to spread positivity in the world.

Achor has written many other books in addition to The Happiness Advantage, all of which are about positive psychology. One of his other New York Times bestselling books is Before Happiness, published in 2013 following the success of The Happiness Advantage. He also wrote The Orange Frog, a parable for all his research in the world of happiness and positivity. He also wrote a children’s book called Ripple’s Effect which explains the effect a positive outlook can have at a level that even kids can understand. He wrote this book with the help of his sister Amy (aka Amy the Unicorn). Achor is releasing a new book this month titled Big Potential that is all about how what one can achieve is not necessarily limited by one’s own individual abilities, but can actually be amplified by the achievement of others.

Achor is quite well-known for his work in the field of happiness. His TED Talk in May of 2011 has 16.8 million views, making it one of the most popular TED talks to date. Achor’s use of humor makes his talk engaging and easy to watch, and he writes his book utilizing the same tone. He also sat down with Oprah recently to discuss his work on her show. According to his official website, he has “worked with over a third of the Fortune 100 companies, and lectured in more than 50 countries speaking to CEOs in China, senior leaders at the Pentagon, schoolchildren in South Africa, and farmers in Zimbabwe.” His global popularity demonstrates just how universal the themes of his research are. Who doesn’t want to know the secret to happiness? Achor seeks to rehabilitate people who have been raised to believe that their happiness is secondary to success, and he’s reaching his goal one copy of The Happiness Advantage at a time.

Isabelle Goodwin