DWYL vs LWYD. It’s a lesser of a debate than we make of it.

The quote in the picture above is from the mesmerising graduation speech at Stanford by Steve Jobs. The video, uploaded by Stanford 9 years ago, has nearly 26.5 million views and nearly 18.5k comments. In the speech, Jobs very eloquently and articulately covered the most important learning from his life. The phrases “connecting the dots” and “remembering that I’ll be dead soon” were given new meanings that day.

The question, however, is, who among the many that heard the inspirational speech live and who among the 26.5 million who have seen the speech online have actually been able to do even a part of what Jobs mentioned? There are 376 members in the MBA Class of 2005 Group of Stanford. Had someone from that group made it big (like Jobs or even close to him), we would have known given the chatter that Social Media would have brought about.

A key part of the speech was based on “Do What You Love” (I will be using DWYL as the abbreviation for this). Jobs believed, and true from his point of view, that doing what you love is the only way to live a life of satisfaction. I have been wondering about this since the time I heard the speech a couple of years ago. Jobs was a great man, perhaps the greatest in the near history. Yet, I am certain that his DWYL principle is not universally applicable.

Take a walk back into your childhood. If someone asked you who would you like to be when you grow up, what did you answer? Did you ever say you wanted to be what you are right now? In majority of the cases the answer will be in the negative. Why did you not become that? What made you change your target and your course? In most cases, the reason will be 2 fold – financial viability (either in becoming what you wanted to or the income after you became what you wanted to) and chances of “success”.

Success, as understood by people in general, is when you have a significant income (better than most) and you are in a position of power and fame (relative to others in the field). This definition of success is the reason why we must change target or course correct. Had Jobs not been successful and famous, would he have been invited to make the speech at Stanford?

Those who choose to do what they love, take a huge risk. Most of them fail and we don’t get to hear of them. There are a few who become ‘successes’ and we all hear many stories about them. Much of the population gets into a job – to earn a livelihood and support the family. Success is a by-product or a result.

Three articles really made me think deeper about this subject. The first by Catherine Baab-Muguira for the Quartz; the second by Rob Asghar for the Forbes; and the third (mentioned as a reference by Muguira in her post) by Miya Tokumitsu for Jacobin. All 3 authors talk about how and why DWYL is either wrong or a wrongly placed principle. While Tokumitsu goes to the extent of also saying why it is not in favour of the economy, Muguira talks about how we need to work for money and if what we love does not have a commercial outcome, it can never be something we can do for a living. Asghar gives 5 reasons as to why doing what you love may not work for any of us.

I come from the same school of thought. Many of us work for large corporations. We are surrounded by the same colleagues every single work day. Do you think all those colleagues really wanted to work for the same company and do the same thing every single day from 9 to 5? Do you think that this was or is their passion? Yet, among those many colleagues, there would be a few who would be the ‘successful’ ones, those that the organisation tags as key talent and those who win almost every company award. What makes them perform so well? Are they really doing what they love? Ask them a simple question. If it wasn’t what they are doing currently, what would they have done (if you weren’t a marketing/ sales/ finance/ risk/ HR/ Legal… manager, what would you have been?)? The answer would be what they really love doing. Ask them why they aren’t doing that for a living and the answer most probably would be linked to the financial viability with a shade of risk.

Yet, they are people we need to learn from. What makes them successful? The answer is not DWYL but LWYD (Love What You Do). Very few of us can make a future by doing what we love but if we all love what we do, we will succeed for certain. LWYD is not easy, it can be really taxing and it demands a lot of conditioning of the mind. However, once done, it is the best thing you can have working for you. Here is how I have come about LWYD.

1.     Start by pledging to do well

Many of us want to just do our jobs. And that is what we will end up doing for the rest of our lives. If what you do is done well, you will see the difference for yourself. Give it your 100%. Think about how you can make a difference. Be improvement focussed. When something is assigned to you, have the obsession to do it better than anyone else. A job well done is a sign of a person with the right intent. A person with the heart in the right place is bound to get attention. Success will follow.

2.     Do the new

In Muguira’s article, she mentions this person who had been doing the same thing for decades, up to his retirement. Most of us will end up working in a similar manner. Monotony is the prime reason for people to get detached from their work. To keep your energy high, keep looking at doing things differently – more efficiently, more effectively. Your hunt for something new will keep your love affair with your work last long. Remember, it is not for the organisation or the boss to give you something new to do. She already has his list for himself. So, you look for your list and push her to make it possible for you.

3.     Set new, more challenging targets

If the same work is required of you, make it more interesting by changing the parameters of success for yourself. Can you do it in lesser time than last? Can you do it spending lesser resources than the last time? Can you drive better results than last time? Your targets for yourself must be over and above the organisation’s target for what you do. Challenge yourself and make it happen, and you will love your work.

4.     Be happy and spread happiness

The one thing that differentiates a place you’d love vs. a place you’d hate is whether it is a happy place or not. Imagine coming to work to a place where there is no energy and you are surrounded by cynics and naysayers with a dull expression. In contrast, imagine you are at a place where people want to get on with the day, are cheerful and want to do good work. The latter workplace will be a place you’d like to come back to. That’s the start of a love story. Build that kind of a workplace, and, NO, it is not for HR to make it happen.

These are not universal rules. These are also not based on research. These are observations from my over-a-dozen-years of working and getting into jobs that are a huge departure from what I love. Clearly, I am not into DWYL. Yet, I have found love in what I do. And that has made all the difference. The question is, whether you DWYL or LWYD!

You will be a Man, my son!

In the past few days, almost on a daily basis, there have been instances of mass killings across the world. Weapons have ranged from guns to bombs to knives and, the most outrageous, a truck. These instances have raged much debate. Debates on religion, gun laws, stress in today’s world, etc.

These are the only stories that news channels covered as well. If anyone wanted some news and switched on a news channel, he would only see killings and more killings. The conclusion? The world is not a place to live anymore and that our future is doomed.

My son is almost 2 now. Fatherhood brings about a very positive and much needed change in you. You start looking at the world differently. You develop feelings of sympathy, concern and affection for all children and people in general. The nature of throwing caution to the wind during bachelorhood and the not-so-serious life as just a husband disappear. What comes to fore is a lot of responsibility; responsibility to provide the best possible and the responsibility to contribute to the world a great person.

My wife and I are very certain that we do not want a son who is mega successful professionally but lacks human values. I would love to raise a mediocre child with great human values. And to start, I need to tell my son that what he sees happening in the world right now is not the wholesome picture. The focus of the world is on all the ills and the disastrous events. The correct focus would bring a huge difference of how we see the world and what we want to build it in future.

Who my son grows up to be is a result of what we, as parents and grandparents, teach him and, more importantly, what he learns and follows. If all goes well, here is what my son will grow up to be.

My son will love people around him. He will trust them until they break his trust, repeatedly. That is how lives are brightened. That is how we build a world worth living, a world that makes us believe it isn’t a punishment. He will value people for who they are and not for what they are. Designations and financial standing would not be his criteria to decide how he would present himself to people. He will respect and love the lowest in the social hierarchy as much as the highest in the social hierarchy.

My son will know to trust. We have developed this acute sense of doubt. We doubt everything and everyone – the doctor who is most recommended, the neighbour who is so good to us, the maid who does an awesome job of keeping the house in order, even they aren’t spared from our doubting nature. We have developed this attitude of being in doubt until proven otherwise. Strange, because we are the same people who have developed machines and programmes where the rule is that all is well until a bug is discovered! What’s more, when we get the same reaction from others, when others doubt us, we get offended and lose our cool.

My son will live life to the fullest because for him life will not be a punishment. The religious texts say that man was sent to earth as a punishment for disobeying God. In my own firm view, this is a story that man himself has created. God loves his sons and daughters. Life on earth is not a punishment but an opportunity – to make things better, to bring change and bring a positive, reassuring influence on people. Life is what you make of it. No one can dictate what life should be. Your life is your own and you are the master of it. Shape it as you wish. You may go wrong, but trust the almighty. He will help you correct the course.

My son will not complain. He will change something that he doesn’t like. If he can’t change it, he will adapt. Too many people complain about too many things through the day, every single day. Complaints have become a part of human character. As we progress and lives become tougher, our complaints are bound to increase.

Being anti-establishment, protesting against the system/law/government does us more harm than good. We aren’t freedom fighters, we are as free as free could be. My son will grow up in a very conducive environment, in a free country, in a free world. He will have no need to revolt or protest. He will bring change where he can and will do it in a manner that does not need the world to know what is wrong but will make the world notice and appreciate when the right is brought to light.

My son will be on the side of right. He will practice what he would preach. He will be true to his word. No matter how tough the choice is, no matter what the consequence of choosing the right would be, he would never deviate from this principle. Upholding ethics would be his responsibility and his first reaction in all situations.

I will teach him to differentiate between religion and God. History is what our ancestors wanted us to know. Religion is no different. God did not create religion. Man created religion. I often hear people saying that if God breeds hatred and intolerance, then why follow God? The fools do not know that men make their word sound like God’s. God gives you strength; religion makes you weak. Men build religion as they like or want it to be. God never asked for religions. God only taught his children truth, love and joy!

My son will follow rules because that is the right thing to do and not because someone’s watching. I see 2 wheeler riders wearing a helmet when they see a cop; four wheeler drives who create contraptions of the seat belt so it seems they are wearing the seat belt but they are not. I see parents telling their children to toe the line because they are watching. This is not the reason why rules should be followed! Rules make the world a better, more organised place. In most cases, they make the world a safe place. My son will follow rules because he would believe in a better world not because he would want to avoid a fine!

My son will be a true believer in God. He will not be a God fearing person, he will be a God loving person. He will know how to distinguish between right and wrong. He will not be blinded by faith. Instead, he will develop a stronger vision, thanks to his faith in God.

For those, who by now have a doubt if I would raise my son to be an ascetic, an idealist, an impossible person, I have only one thing to say. I will teach my son what he needs to learn to become a great human being. If he imbibes even half of what I teach him, I would be happy as a clam. You may think that if he becomes what I desire him to become, he will end up being gullible. It is in fact the opposite. My guru, Aniruddha Bapu, will give me the strength to become a good parent. I am sure, if I try hard enough, I will succeed. The first year of my fatherhood didn’t go as well as I planned it to be, thanks to the obscene working hours. I have corrected myself and will ensure my son has all the necessary support to blossom into a person who loves everyone and who is loved by everyone. What’s in it for him? I have just one thing to say – “You will be a Man, my son!”

I am a religious fanatic. Now what?

The large scale debate last year on intolerance seems like breathing its last. Of course, there could be someone wanting some limelight for a potential political career who may bring up the issue of intolerance again with a speech covered live by most media channels! Till then, let the debate rest in pieces.

The commonest ground for intolerance has been religion. The feeling of “my religion is better than yours” has led to dialogues, discussions, debates, heated arguments, fist fights, social upheavals and battles. The recent Dhaka attacks saw people getting butchered because they were unaware of the religious texts of a particular religion. There has never been any consensus on which religion is the best. The question is, what is religion?

God has existed. Faith has existed. Religion is man-made. Invented and fuelled for man’s personal gains and his insatiable need of power and authority. These men have reduced religion to being a means of survival for the meek. They have made it a point to ensure that those in need of strength and support, flock to them for a dialogue with God. And these are the people who have created the huge divide that exists among religions.

A few people I know are of the opinion that one should not believe in God because that will help in reducing religious intolerance. I would term those people as ignorant individuals. They believe that following God is the reason why people get into religious intolerance. It is not God that says we should be intolerant. No avatar of God has ever asked us to be intolerant. It is the self-appointed but very narrow minded agents of God who have taught us to be intolerant. If those (that believe that religion is about making people irrational and therefore one must not follow God) were to get the real picture and spread the word that God is not religion and religion is not God, they would do much better service than try and convince people not to follow God at all. That in my mind, is also fanaticism that leads nowhere.

I have been lucky to be born into and raised in a family where belief and faith in God has a lot of importance. I have imbibed values that define ‘Indianness’. I am by definition a ‘Hindu’ because I pray to a certain set of Gods and follow certain festivals and rituals. But Hinduism is not my religion. I don’t need a categorisation by which Gods I follow. I have utmost faith and belief in the almighty. And I really don’t see how being or not being a ‘Hindu’ will change that. I am certain, if I was raised in any other family, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, or any other, I would still have the same outlook if I had the same upbringing.

I am not a God fearing person. I am a God loving person. I love God as I love my mother and my father. I don’t fear God because he is not a policeman or a judge. He is a parent and I am his child. I will not do wrong because I know if I do that, I will hurt Him. Exactly like I did not do anything that my mother asked me not to do; only because I knew I would hurt her.

The question is, if my religion is not Hinduism or any other that is generally found in the drop down list of religions, what is my religion? My religion is Humanity. I think that is the only religion required. Rest are all beliefs and faiths. And all lead to one destination, God. The names might be different but the end is the same. Thanks to a few mindless and selfish individuals, the world today stands divided by religions.

I help people when I can. I ensure I keep people happy around me. My heart feels pain when I see someone in pain. Ever since I have become a father, sorrow fills my heart when I see little street dwellers. I try to empathise with people. I buy a balloon from the vendor who chose not to beg but earn his living, and have bought them packets of flour to feed their families. I buy pens from the blind salesperson because he chose not to give up in life. I try and help as many as I can. I can’t help them all; I would if I could but I can’t. So I help as many as I can.

My guru, Aniruddha Bapu, asks us to live by 3 principles – Truth, Love and Joy. While I won’t say that I live the first one to my best, the other two, I live by to the best extent possible. My life has changed. I see a better world. I don’t fret in traffic jams. I don’t stare at the person who cuts into my lane. I don’t seek revenge for every wrong done to me. I respect others and their points of view. I do to people what I expect them to do to me. I don’t think and work according to only my convenience; I keep other people’s convenience in mind as well.

A Hindu world, a Muslim world, a Christian world – these are all misleading. The only world we need to create is human’s world. Care for each other. Love each other. Laugh with each other and cry for each other. That is the world that we need to gift our children. Let us not make them grow up to be rigid, hateful, and vengeful. Let us make them love humanity. Let us raise them to love peace. Let us train them to make this world a better place.

I believe in God. My religion is humanity and I am a religious fanatic. I wish and hope everyone becomes that. The world needs only that kind of fanaticism.

How petty we are!

A couple of days back, my organisation planned a community service initiative. About 20 of us visited the Thane centre of Access Life, an organisation that provides shelter and care for children suffering with cancer and their families. This facility is primarily for those families that cannot afford a place to stay in Mumbai. In a world where there are several financial support initiatives for the disease, this is a unique initiative as it takes care of the other side of the disease that gets unnoticed though is equally challenging.

We reached the centre and were introduced to the children and their families. There were 6 children at that time though the total strength of the centre was 11 children and their families.

All the 6 children were patients of blood cancer. One baby was only about 2 and a half year old. The oldest was about 12. All of them are currently undergoing treatment at various hospitals in the city. Having seen a cancer case closely in my family, I cannot even imagine the emotional stress the parents of the children are going through in making sure that the treatment is complete and the child recovers. We were told that 2 of the 11 children were in the last stages of the disease. We all understood what it meant but none spoke the words.

I am fortunate to be working for an organisation that believes in these initiatives. Not only did we get the second half of the day off for the visit, the company also spent on food, games, transportation among other incidental expenses. Had this not been taken care of, we would have been confined to the four walls of the office thinking that our world is the only world that exists.

Ever since my father self was born, I have started looking at the world at large and children in particular with an emotional view. The suffering of a child makes my heart ache and my eyes swell. Not just the children that I saw at Access Life but even the children of street dwellers. The reaction that comes next is a feeling of gratitude to my guru Aniruddha Bapu and God Almighty for giving my son a life that is so comfortable, happy and fulfilled.

Back to Access Life. We spent about 2 hours with the children and their parents. We started off with an icebreaker session with the ubiquitous selfie and moved on to a magic show. The children were thrilled to see the illusions and so were the parents. Then we did some sketching and painting, and finally rounded up the evening with some snacks. The time just whizzed past. We were revelling in their joy. Not for once did any child put up a face of a critically ill child. They were enjoying every second that we spent with them. They have thrown a challenge to life – pin us down if you can!

A visit to such places puts life in perspective. How petty we are complaining about the heat, about traffic, about water supply, about our bosses, the bonus, the government, the programming schedule on television, the absconding house maid and so much more! These kids don’t know how tomorrow would be. They are battling life. And they are smiling through it. We chase sales targets. They chase the sunrise. We have the comfort of eating what we want, they look at and then look away. We (not me) use all kinds of hair products to prevent that split ends, they enjoy the baldness. We forget God in our pursuit of a lifestyle, they have daily conversations with Him.

The visit made me question, what am I doing with my life. Why do I complain? Why do I not count my blessings? Why do I focus more on what I don’t have? The children made me realise that I am a small, a very small human being. They are the young, yet large hearted people, who deserve the world. They deserve the smile and the laugh. They deserve the good times and the fun. They deserve the comforts that they don’t have.

One thing is for sure, I will keep trying. I will keep creating opportunities to meet such children, old people, less privileged (or more?). I will yearn to put a smile on their faces. Thanks to my organisation, I will get such an opportunity every quarter but I will look for more such opportunities. Very few people, those who I am very close to, will get to know about the donations I make towards such initiatives. I believe spending quality time with those who need it is as much important as money for these causes, . Money provides for the treatment and the necessities. These people need more than that – they need smiles, little joys of life and times that make them forget their ailment or sorrows and help them live every moment to the fullest.

I know a week from now, I will be sucked into the usual. Targets, daily cribbing, complaints, and the likes. The reason I want to periodically go back to such places is that I need a thwack on my head. Time and again, I need to realise what others are going through. Time and again, I need to see the realities of life other than the four walls of my house, the four walls of my office and the confines of my car. I would urge you to do the same. We all need time out to see what life really is. What we live is not the real life. We need to get the true perspective.

May God give the children strength. May God help them deal with their agony and pain like every petty problem they deal with day in and day out. May they get cured and see happier days forever.

PS: For not a moment am I saying that your problems are petty or small. To each, his/her problem is huge. However, if you had to give weightage to a problem that has a small aspect of life versus a problem that is a problem of life and death, which one would you give more weight? There, you now know where I am coming from!

What do you focus on?

Imagine 10 people locked in one room. There are 9 good people and 1 person with a criminal record. There is no weapon anywhere and there is police guarding the door of the room from the outside.

What would the good people focus on? One another or the criminal? Isn’t the answer obvious? In all probability, the good people will focus on the criminal. Why do you think this would happen? Because they are confident about one another but not about the criminal? Is it lack of trust for the criminal? No. Think harder and do the 5 why test. The answer ultimately would be that the good people in the room are fearful. They focus on the criminal because they are scared that he would bring misery to them.

This is a life lesson. Just look around yourself and you will find a whole host of people who are conditioned. This conditioning has resulted in a reflex – to focus on ‘what’s not right/good’ first and then look at (if at all there is any intent to) ‘what’s good’. From the highest official in the system to the youngest employee, most would have this reflex. Show them a proposal, they will first look at what is lacking. Show them a creative and hear a lot about what is wrong. Show them a review presentation and they will first look at where they can drill holes.

This behaviour, this reflex comes from a deep seated fear, an insecurity. We fuel it so much that it starts controlling us. So much so that you would find many who would only look at the wrongs or the shortcomings and not pay any attention to the rights or the benefits.

When we focus on the wrong, we do ourselves huge disservice. This focus is self-consuming. It breeds on itself. The more you do it, the better you become at it, the stronger attachment you build with it. The result? You grow weaker and weaker. Has it ever happened to you that you did 100 things right and did not get the appreciation and you did one thing wrong and the whole organisation doubted your ability? This is a very common experience. Why does it happen? Because you are surrounded by weak people. People who focus on the minus than the plus.

Do a quick introspective test. Do you also have this behaviour? Looking first at the wrong and then at the right? If yes, you are a victim of the fear of failure or some other fear for sure. It could also be the fear of building a team not as capable as yourself - “he is not like me so I need to make him like me”. A strong person on the other hand will look at what is right and build upon it. The strong person knows that if he strengthens the strength, the weakness will get eclipsed. I remember Ajay Srinivasan, Chief Executive, Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group, from a chat a few years ago. He was asked how he deals with people’s weaknesses. He said that he doesn’t focus on weaknesses. If he did that, the entire world would appear incompetent. He focusses on the strength of people and pushes them on that strength till they make it so pronounced that it overshadows their weaknesses.

Team leaders need to be more particular and avoid falling into this trap of focussing on weakness. A motivated team is one that feels inspired at all times. A definite murderer of inspiration is a bias for criticism and focus on shortcomings. When on one hand the team hears long discourses on how they are incompetent or have erred and on the other get a passing reference to a job well done, they feel suffocated. Then it is a downward spiral. Their performance suffers, the teal leader criticises more, the performance falls further and it just is an endless reaction. Why would any team leader want that? The truth is, there are such people aplenty in the corporate world.

Even Hanuman needed to realise his strength before he could make the journey to Lanka to meet Sita. We are but mere humans. We need to realise our strengths. We need an environment that is nurturing.  All this can happen only when we look at people’s strengths and push them on them to make is a real game changer. And when we do that, success will be on our side, every single time. 

Job satisfaction is archaic!

One of the three life principles that my guru, Aniruddha Bapu, proposes is happiness or joy. The other two being truth and love. Happiness is much understated and not in focus. Even in the corporate world, happiness can create significant impact on the workforce and the organisation at large.

Personal life is not driven by rules. You can choose to be happy and choose not to be so. In my previous post, I have delved deeper into the concept of happiness. I have seen both kinds of people in equal number. You need to have the will to be happy. If you do, you will find ways of being happy. If you don’t have the will and focus on what is not so good in life, you will always struggle to be happy. You are the master of your happiness or sorrow.

In professional life, however, things are a little different. You are not the master of what all you do and will have to comply by the rules of the organisation, unless you are an entrepreneur and make rules for your own organisation. Though the rules are different, one thing is common in personal and professional lives – happiness creates magic. Through my working life I have been part of teams/organisations that are unhappy and also those that are happy. What I say next is not conjecture but a conclusion based on keen observation of dynamics within teams and organisations.

There used to be a time when job satisfaction was the measure of whether a person likes his job or not. Job satisfaction is a dead term today. So what does job satisfaction entail? Good salary, good boss, good team, good future, etc. Everything put together that would make you stick in the organisation. Given today’s lifestyle, job satisfaction seems incomplete. You may have all that job satisfaction would need as ingredients, still something would be missing. You may be satisfied but not happy. Ever heard the statement, “Something’s missing!”? That something, the X-factor, is happiness.

Supervisors, team leaders and organisation leaders have a huge task of driving happiness in their teams. Happiness in professional life doesn’t come the same way as it does in personal life. That makes it more challenging. When the organisation’s management does not believe in driving happiness but you do, it makes it even tougher.

As a supervisor, here are certain behavioural traits that can help build a happy team.

1. Freedom to work

The toughest thing to do when transitioning from an individual contributor to a manager is the unwillingness to let go of control. It is tough to give away the things that brought you success thus far. That is precisely the reason why you will cast a shadow of unhappiness on your team. Let go. Let them work as you liked working. Give them freedom. Oversee and guide but don’t control.

2. Be a superman

No, don’t wear your underwear over your trousers. What I mean is that your team would look for a person who can salvage a situation, no matter how bad they get. This is closely linked to my earlier point on freedom. Only when the team has the confidence that failure will not result in disaster, will they value freedom and only then will it drive an aspect of happiness. Celebrate failures but don’t make failures a habit for your team.

3. Don’t expect them to be you

Huge mistake when supervisors expect their teams to reflect how they were. There is a reason why they are supervisors; their exemplary performance. Stop declaring that you did much more at their age and that you achieved a lot more at their age. Neither it motivates them nor makes you a person to look up to. All it does is frustrates them, something you can’t afford if you want your team to succeed. A constant focus on ‘I’ makes the team become distant and detached, and when that happens, happiness suffers.

4. Spend time outside of work as well

Go for lunches, Friday drinking sessions, dinners, etc. with your team. Helps them know you as a person and helps you know them as people. Many a time you will learn something about them that you would never have imagined. That little knowledge could be your trump card in making a happy team. But when you go out of office with your team, don’t be the boss. Be a friend. Drop the authority. No work discussions, just fun and laughter. Be one of them and see them connect with you like you never imagined.

5. Develop a sense of humour

In my experience, I have noticed that team leads who have a sense of humour, are loved more than the ones who are serious. The reason is simple. You need that time off, that time when you can ‘lol’. We spend more time at work than at home. Creating moments of laughter therefore becomes very important. Having a good sense of humour makes the team come closer to you. It demolishes the barriers that may otherwise exist. And when the barriers are demolished, when your team starts liking you, automatically you start driving happiness in your team.

I read a definition of job satisfaction once that stuck with me – If you get up in the morning and do not feel the urge to skip work, you are experiencing job satisfaction. How very true! This is the litmus test. However, I would go further. If you haven’t been to work for a bit and miss being there, you are a job happy person.

Gone are the days when people would come to work and spend the mandated hours and head back home. There is more involvement and dedication at work today than there was ever before. That is the reason why creating happiness becomes all the more important. We are spending far too much time at work than at home. Home is where love is, relationship is and that’s the reason home is home. You can’t make work as good as home. How about creating the degree of happiness that makes it a place you would like to be in?

Creating a happy team needs only one investment – happiness. Trust me, in my experience, it is not difficult to drive happiness in the team. And a happy team is a successful team. The success will be exponential. Unlike a rule of the stick where success would be immediate, in a happy team, success will be slightly delayed. However, when the tipping point is reached, success will start pouring in, much more than what you would see in the rule of stick.

Last but definitely not least, people who are happy at work and happy at home will help create a happier world, a brighter world, a better world. So, what kind of team would you like to build?