Transcriber: Suzanne Agnew Reviewer: Eunice Tan
What does it mean to be happy at work?
There are three very important aspects of happiness.
Happiness cannot be reached directly.
Do you get out of bed in the morning,
saying to yourself,
"Today, I am going to reach a state of happiness"?
I guess not.
Happiness is a condition
that comes from your involvement in other activities.
We are always happy because of something.
Happiness depends on interpretation.
Everything in our psychological life
is subjective,
and so is happiness.
The same conditions can be a source of happiness for an individual
and sadness for another one.
Understanding reality as an interpretation
can help us in facing the unpredictability of life.
Happiness is not a static condition.
Homo sapiens is a desiring animal.
We are insatiable by nature.
We are Doctor Faustus,
who promises his soul to the devil,
wishing to be surprised one more time.
We are Icarus, flying to the sun.
This is an abductive mechanism,
and happiness is our prize.
The pursuit of happiness is the key of our evolution.
Happiness is natural,
and we are naturally programmed to face challenges.
These are the main characteristics of happiness.
And now that we know them,
we can see how they intertwine with jobs.
The concept of work in Italy
has changed a lot throughout generations.
For my grandparents' generation, work meant salary, survival.
During the Second World War, a lot of families suffered from famine.
They lived in very bad conditions,
without any comfort and without food to eat.
When my grandmother was a child,
she used to be hungry and to complain about it to her mom.
Usually, the reply was,
"Sleep, and hunger will disappear."
When the war ended,
having a good and well-paid job
was a blessing.
And the mission of life
was to grow up a healthy family without anything missing.
For my parents' generation, things were strongly different.
Family was still very important in the '80s,
but the concept of work changed meaning:
it meant career.
My parents started from a solid basement:
no wars, no famine,
opportunity to reach a high level of education
or even an academic one.
The labor market was flourishing.
You could leave a job and find another one in two weeks.
It's utopia for modern times.
I called my parents' generation the "manager" generation
because they looked for great jobs and great careers,
possibly in great companies.
So, we arrive to my generation.
Millennials have very comfortable lives.
We have a high level of education;
we have a high level of specialization.
But we have a stagnant labor market.
Therefore, the concept of work changed meaning.
Today, it means vocation.
We follow this myth of "the garage,"
which means to found a billion-dollar company -
a unicorn -
starting from scratch,
with only an idea and a lot of time and commitment.
Actually,
today, we have the means to change the world
through great revolutions,
not only for us and our families
but for everyone.
Let's go back to the original question:
what does it mean to be happy at work?
I have a formula for this:
happiness at work
is the product of your interpretation
over environment and engagement.
We can pursue happiness by changing environment.
You can change country,
looking for new opportunities to express your talent.
This is called human capital flight,
and it's a very common phenomenon in our age.
But if you don't want or you can't emigrate,
there is a softer way to change the status quo:
networking.
If you manage to put people and ideas together,
you will be surprised by your results.
The more oxygen you have, the stronger will be the flame.
We can shape happiness by improving engagement.
The feeling of being engaged comes when challenges and skills are balanced.
If challenges are too easy,
we feel bored,
and we look for more difficult ones.
But what happens when challenges are too hard?
We have to become stronger by developing our skills.
It is hard.
It takes time and a lot of commitment.
But we are built to do it.
Next time that you face a difficult situation
that seems too big or too hard for you,
remember that we are naturally programmed to do it -
to face challenges,
to develop our skills,
and to evolve.
In the formula I showed you previously,
there is a key factor:
interpretation.
Environment can be good or can be bad,
depending on how we see it.
We can underestimate or overestimate
our challenges as well as our skills.
Everything depends on interpretation.
And reaching happiness at work and outside work
means to put life and see things in different perspectives,
inspiring people to follow your path,
and all together, bringing humanity to the next level.
Let me tell you a story.
During his journey,
a pilgrim came across some workers
who were sculpting large blocks of stone.
The men were all sweaty,
full of dust,
and visibly fatigued.
The pilgrim asked the first man,
"What are you doing?"
The man looked at him and replied, quite annoyed,
"Can't you see?
I'm beating this piece of stone,
and I can't wait to go home, finishing this damn job."
Not too far, there was a second man.
This one seemed to be more interested in what he was doing.
When asked, "What are you doing?"
the man replied,
"I'm sculpting this stone to build a wall.
It's a very tiring job,
but I'm doing it to feed my family,
so I don't complain about it."
The pilgrim continued and arrived at the third man.
This one was also very fatigued,
full of dust and sweaty.
But from time to time,
he stopped his work, admiring the stone.
The pilgrim asked,
"What are you doing?"
And the man replied with a big smile,
"Can't you see?
I'm building a cathedral."
The most powerful perspective
is when we see our activities connected to a purpose.
As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said,
"If you want to build a ship,
don't tell people to collect wood
and don't assign them tasks.
But rather, teach them the endless immensity of the sea."
Thank you very much.
(Applause)