The Big Business of Happiness

A quick Amazon book search today on “happiness” generated over 80,000 results; mostly self-help books, some memoirs, and a few novels. Americans spend an inordinate amount of money on happiness, and I’m not only talking about books. We spend money on clothes, accessories, cosmetics, toys, drugs, vacations, cars, hobbies, food, drinks, health, and… well, one could make a good argument that every single dollar we spend is focused directly or indirectly on happiness.  Happiness is big business! After all, we do live in the country that profoundly believes in everyone’s unalienable right to pursue happiness. 

In pursuing my own happiness, I have ventured into creative non-fiction writing projects capturing the lives of expressly happy people. Studying cheerful personalities is certainly more pleasant than studying dreary, miserable subjects. Plus, I do believe we all could learn a lot by reading about these positive geniuses. So, instead of looking at happiness from an academic or clinical perspective, I will study happiness one indisputably happy person at a time. Join me and this evolving “Happiness Posse” and let’s learn from each other on how we can be happy and share happiness.