During the past 7 months, I’ve met many professionals, who have chosen to ‘hand in’ their career’s with large organisations in order to ‘do good’ elsewhere. These accountants, lawyers, business analysts and branding experts, felt that they were trading success for happiness, but are they?

As a manager of a team of 35 young, ambitious branding, communications and social responsibility professionals, I understand some of the challenges that today’s managers face. How do you ensure your team’s happiness? That team members feel motivated and focused on the tasks at hand, whilst balancing their private lives and their careers.

I’ve always been convinced that the happier you are, the happier you can make other people and the more successful you can be. So, you can imagine the pleasure I had watching Shawn Achor’s presentation online at TEDx, pretty much confirming my ‘sunny’ point of view.

Happiness is on the opposite side of success. We often think, that we need success in order to be happy. Whereas, all we really need is the happiness advantage. The happier we are, the more successful we can become. Check out “The happy secret to better work” on Youtube, which I believe is 12 minutes well spent.

I live my own life by my own motto, “As soon as you start living yor dreams, your dreams evolve.” By being happy, you can achieve anything you want to, especially your dreams and when you’re happy, you can make everyone around you happy too.

So as a manager of 35 innovative and go-getting professionals, I selflessly start with myself. I ensure that I’m happy, and when that’s done, I ensure that my team members have the tools to make themselves happy. I guess, in my own way, I’m spreading the happiness advantage. And a little, goes a long way to achieving any company’s goals!

So, Soesma, Jeroen, et al, you haven’t traded success for happiness, you’re following you’re dreams. And, it’s only through happiness that you can truly find success!