My interpretation of this is that people feel more fulfilled and happier when they accomplish something that was hard. It is accomplishing a goal that might have been considered unachievable; accomplishing something you thought you couldn’t do. Dr. Brooks also said, not only is Earned Success a major key to happiness – faith, family, and community are as well.

A key ingredient to achieving success is first believing you have the potential to succeed and second having someone else that believes in your potential. Two years after completing Basic Cadet Training at the Air Force Academy my daughter switched roles. She became a Cadre (the person responsible for training and developing the next class of USAFA Basic Cadets – the one who yells at the incoming freshman Basics). Having gone through BCT two years prior, she had confidence in each of the incoming Basics that they had the potential to succeed. While her (and other cadre’s) message may have been hard, she was confident in the potential of each Basic. She took pride in encouraging incoming Basics and motivating them to achieve Earned Success.

Unfortunately, the corporate world is often driven by the quest for the almighty dollar; employees work longer and longer days at the office to earn larger and larger paychecks to buy bigger and bigger houses and fancier and fancier cars, showing off to people they don’t even know – all in the hopes that this will lead to happiness. This is a bit like my dog that used to chase her tail around in circles never catching it. There are many studies showing that material pursuits do not lead to happiness. Research shows that people who are active in their community and engaged with their family tend to be happier than those that pursue, at all costs, financial and material success.

Going back to the question asked by the CEOs, “why aren’t my employees motivated.” I started seeing a trend that company leaders believed their employees were seeking happiness through receiving a paycheck. Many of these leaders were entrepreneurs and their motivation for starting the company was to achieve “financial” success and they simply thought the same was true for their employees. Unfortunately for them, human behavioral science and dramatic shifts in social behaviors say the CEOs are fighting a losing battle if they think their employees work for cash alone. In his book, “Culture Trumps Everything,” Gustavo Grodnitzky states that people work harder for a Cause than for cash. He goes on to say that money is the most expensive way to motivate people, and it does so only in the short term. Social norms (driven by confidence in potential that lays the foundation for culture) are not only cheaper, but they last longer and are more effective.