Stop Chasing Happiness. Chase Impact and Happiness Will Follow.
Spotify founder Daniel Ek says lasting happiness comes from making an impact, a lesson he used to push Uber's CEO to take his job.
David Senra · Daniel Ek, Spotify | David SenraDaniel Ek, the founder of Spotify, was talking with his friend Dara Khosrowshahi, the chief executive of Uber, when Khosrowshahi was deciding whether to take the top job at Uber. Khosrowshahi had said he was happy running Expedia and had first told Uber no.
Ek pushed back with a question. As Khosrowshahi later retold it: "Since when is life about happiness? It's about impact."
Ek argues that "happiness is a trailing indicator of impact." He believes people can feel brief bursts of happiness, with plenty of ups and downs, but truly sustained happiness comes from making an impact, and impact is deeply personal so only the individual can define it.
For Ek, impact means solving a problem "that no one else had been able to figure out." He says he does not feel it in the moment of doing hard work. The happiness arrives later, when he reflects on what was accomplished.
That was why the advice fit Khosrowshahi, Ek says. As he listened, it became clear that Khosrowshahi was not happy but content. He had gone through ups and downs at Expedia and had mostly figured it out. Ek urged him to push himself harder and aim higher, because chances like Uber do not come often.
Ek adds a limit to his own advice. He says he would give different advice to a different person, but the underlying order holds. Happiness trails impact, yet what counts as impact varies, and it could mean having an impact on other people, or being a great father to your kids.
Questions people ask
Who is Daniel Ek and why do business leaders ask him for advice?
He co-founded Spotify in 2006 in Sweden and built it into the world's largest music streaming service, with hundreds of millions of users. Before that, he started and sold an online advertising company in his early twenties.
Did Dara Khosrowshahi take the Uber job?
He took the Uber job in 2017 after leading Expedia for more than a decade. Uber was then dealing with scandals over workplace culture and leadership, so the role was seen as high risk and high impact.
Is there research behind the idea that purpose leads to happiness?
Psychologists often distinguish between hedonic happiness, which is pleasure in the moment, and eudaimonic well-being, which comes from purpose, growth, and contribution. Research generally finds that purposeful activity predicts longer lasting life satisfaction than chasing pleasure directly.