The Algorithm for Eternal Happiness
When I booked the podcast interview with Mo Gawdat, Chief Business Officer at Google [X], a serial entrepreneur and author of the book, SOLVE FOR HAPPY. I was inexplicably excited. I knew he was going to bring my audience so much wisdom and value. He was going to teach people how to be HAPPY. In 2001, Mo found himself unhappy despite being surrounded with all trappings of what most would assume would create happiness: a beautiful family, successful career, and financial abundance. That's when he decided to approach solving for happiness like an engineer. He spent years doing research and using science to back up his findings. It worked.
Here is the equation:
In 2014, the algorithm was put to the ultimate test after the sudden death of his son after a preventable human error during an appendectomy.
"As you can imagine how hard it is to lose a child and to lose someone who is as close to me as Ali was even harder," said Mo. "But somehow we were peaceful as a family we could engage our happiness model. I wouldn't say we were happy, but we were not disgruntled with life.
Even though his death was a surprise to us, before he died, he sat us all down: myself, his mother and his sister. He told us how much he loved us, told us how much he appreciates our presence in his life, how we helped make him the the person that he is, and then in his funny way, he basically said, 'Papa I know that it sounds odd coming from your son and all, but I want you to change the way you go about things. I want you to continue to try and make a difference to the world, but I want you to depend on your heart a little more often.'"
With his son's request in mind, Mo set out to make 10 million people happy. On this episode of the podcast, Mo shares his story, his happiness equation and his is mission.
And by the way, I came away from the interviewing feeling not only happy, but also moved and inspired. He's the real deal.
Links:
#10millionhappy
The song featured on the show is "Slow Burn" by AUTOGRAF.