The Happiness Advantage (Speaker and Audience)

The Happiness Advantage is written by Shawn Achor, an American author and known speaker for his advocacy of positive psychology. Before writing this book, Achor taught a “happiness” course at Harvard and noticed how many students would become unhappy or depressed, so he wanted to do something about it. He began to research happiness and eventually became one of the world’s leading experts on the connection between happiness and success. He has lectured all over the world and is also known for his famous TED talk, which has over thirteen million views. Achor now serves as the founder and CEO of Aspirant, a “research and consulting firm that uses positive psychology to enhance individual achievement and cultivate a more productive workplace,” and his work has received attention from major places and people including New York Times and Oprah, who he has even worked with on a mission to bring more positivity into the world. 

Achor wrote this book for people who seem to constantly be stressed, unhappy, or disappointed like some of his students he observed. He writes to inform others that they are not alone and provides many ways that they can improve their lives and feelings daily. Also contributing to his own happiness, Achor wishes to see others happy and suggests his seven principles: The Happiness Advantage, The Fulcrum and the Lever, The Tetris Effect, Falling Up, The Zorro Circle, The 20-Second Rule, and Social Investment, as specific and proven patterns that predict success and achievement. He primarily focuses on these principles to allow the reader to find which they can relate to the most and provides many examples, methods, advice, and ways to change or improve on them in order to reach happiness. Furthermore, Achor ends the book with Part Three: The Ripple Effect, which concentrates on not only achieving happiness, but “spreading the happiness advantage at work, at home, and beyond.” This is an important factor as Achor hopes to have impacted the reader’s life by the end of the book, and wishes to spread the wisdom as an emphasis to one of his main points: The Happiness Advantage is not the belief that we do not need to change; it is the realization that we can.

Jennifer Rubio