Shawn Achor - Before Happiness: The 5 Hidden Keys to Achieving Success, Spreading Happiness, and Sustaining Positive Change

Copyright 2013 by Shawn Achor
All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Crown Business,
an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

www.crownpublishing.com
CROWN BUSINESS is a trademark and CROWN and the Rising Sun colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Achor, Shawn.
Before happiness : the 5 hidden keys to achieving success, spreading happiness, and sustaining positive change / by Shawn Achor.
p. cm
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Happiness. 2. Positive psychology. 3. Change (Psychology) 4. Success. I. Title.
BF575.H27A267 2013
158dc23
2013022564
eISBN: 978-0-7704-3674-2

Line art and pyramid graphic by Tam Nguyen
Jacket design by Jess Morphew

v3.1

To Michelle Gielan,
who changed everything I knew about happiness.
She is living proof that when we shine brightly,
this world can be transformed.

As I reflect on the wild ride of the past few yearsgetting to travel around the world researching and speaking about happinessI am continually humbled by the realization that I began this journey in the depths of depression while at Harvard. I remember during divinity school my first attempt at journaling, in which I wrote, I dont remember being happy. Some people who read this book will know that place well. And others will never experience that dark night of the soul. But I know this: Change is possible only when we link our lives to others. There are no words that can convey the deep gratitude I have for all the people who make every day, during every shining success and daunting setback, joyful and worth living.

This list is only a small fraction of those people.

Michelle Gielan, my fiance, business partner, fellow researcher, best friend so pretty much she deserves an entire acknowledgment book. I plan on spending my life writing it. She read The Happiness Advantage while in the UPenn positive psychology program. She e-mailed me, we met up, started working together, and fell in love all while researching and spreading happiness. If I had only known Id get to meet her, I would have written the book earlier.

My sister Amy (the unicorn) and my brother for being both my compass and my rock. Their love, support, and wisdom are worth mixing metaphors. Little Ana, Gabri, and Kobi are the living fruits of their generous spirits.

Joe and Sharon Achor, lifelong educators, who taught me how to love. There is no better compliment.

Jordan Brock for his genius in helping grow our company; he believes so strongly that this research needs to be heard because he lives it as a business leader, husband, and father. He and his family are our family now.

Talia Krohn, my editor, who patiently worked with me for two years on this book as I kept trying to cram it with new research or rewrite whole sections as I got excited about something else. Shes amazing.

Stuart Johnson and Meridith Simes from Success magazine. Stuart is a visionary and Meridith makes it happen. They are not only reinventing Success, but they are going to be at the vanguard of how entrepreneurs worldwide use this research. They are also incredibly generous souls and friends. Thank you to their team, including Susan Kane, who has helped spread and advance this mission.

Rafe Sagalyn, my literary agent, who believed in me from the beginning. If you want an agent, Rafe is one of the best in the industry.

Jenny Canzoneri, Holli Catchpole, and the SpeakersOffice team in California, which officially handles all our back-office logistics flawlessly and tirelessly. If you are a speaker, you couldnt find a better partner supporting your efforts.

CorpU for turning our research into an entire online academic and social course for companies worldwide. CorpU is the future of online education, so Im so grateful that they are so interested in starting with happiness research.

Greg Kaiser, Kevin Karaffa, Greg Ray, and the entire International Thought Leader Network, including Donald Bargy, Marti Kaiser, and Reggie Tyler, for partnering with us to create a sustainable way to cascade the happiness advantage throughout companies. The parable-based train-the-trainer program we launched at Nationwide is fantastic, thanks to their dedication.

Heidi Krupp-Lisiten and Darren Lisiten from Krupp Kommunications (K2), who served as our top-notch PR team. It is great to work with a husband-wife team, as Michelle and I work hand in hand as well. They are fantastic if you want to reach multiple PR verticals and want to have fun doing it.

Crown Business team at Random House for their marketing efforts and investing so much energy in this project.

Ali Crum, a former student turned friend and inspiration. She is the rarest of breeds: a world-famous, brilliant academic with a way of connecting to anyone with her warm heart.

Marty Seligman for not only creating the field of positive psychology but also enabling an entire generation of disciples to bring this message forward.

Jeff Olson and Amber Olson, who dedicated themselves to rallying the troops at Nerium to make this research turn into a movement.

Cory Ludens and Mattress Firm for partnering with us on research and becoming a positive outlier company that thrives on passion.

Adam Grant, a modern-day genius and a new friend. Literally the smartest person I know. His book Give and Take is fantastic, and he helped me brainstorm several of the ideas in this book.

Gerry Richman from PBS and Colleen Steward from Tremendous! Entertainment, who partnered with us to create the PBS show for The Happiness Advantage. Thanks to them, the show aired in 88 percent of American homes.

Tony Hsieh, Jenn Lim, and James Key Lim at Delivering Happiness for partnering with us to help create culture change at companies based upon their incredible work at Zappos and the Downtown Project.

Christian Long and TEDxBloomington for getting us the TED spot that went viral.

Tal Ben-Shahar, who has inspired not only me but thousands like me to make positive changes, to become a better person, and to be excited about life.

Barbara Teszler, who is a PR bulldog who gets things done. She helped breathe PR life into the Institute for Applied Positive Research and The Happiness Advantage.

Alexis Roberts, for keeping her finger on the pulse of the happiness movement and beating a constant drumbeat of positivity.

Brent Furl, my spiritual buddy and lifelong friend, who keeps me focused on what is most important.

Kelci, Brock who is a continual source of light, wisdom, and fun. We could not do what we are doing without her.

Mike Lampert and Laura Babbitt, whose warm friendship has served as a great Haven.

Writing a book requires massive emotional support. Thank you for my friends who were there to shoulder the burden or be patient or just be fun: Olivia Sfouf Shabb, Greg and Cathy McCain, Max Weisbuch, Caleb Merkl, Matt and Jess Glazer, Eric Karpinski, Heidi Hanna, and many others.

I study positive outliers: people who are up above the curve for any given dimension. This whole group of amazing outliers and friends needs to be studied more. I hope you hear their voices on every page.