The Happiness Equation

Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

By: Neil Pasricha

Narrated by: Neil Pasricha

Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's Summary

The number one international best seller from the author of The Book of Awesome that “reveals how all of us can live happier lives” (Gretchen Rubin). What is the formula for a happy life? Neil Pasricha is a Harvard MBA, a New York Times - best-selling author, a Walmart executive, a father, a husband. After selling more than a million copies of the Book of Awesome series, wherein he observed the everyday things he thought were awesome, he now shifts his focus to the practicalities of living an awesome life.

In his new book The Happiness Equation, Pasricha illustrates how to want nothing and do anything in order to have everything. If that sounds like a contradiction in terms, you simply have yet to unlock the nine secrets to happiness. Each secret takes a piece out of the core of common sense, turns it on its head to present it in a completely new light, and then provides practical and specific guidelines for how to apply this new outlook to lead a fulfilling life.

Once you've unlocked Pasricha’s nine secrets, you will understand counter intuitive concepts such as: Success does not lead to happiness, never take advice, and retirement is a broken theory. You will learn and then master three brand-new fundamental life tests: The Saturday morning test, the bench test, and the five people test. You will know the difference between external goals and internal goals and how to make more money than a Harvard MBA (hint: It has nothing to do with your annual salary). You will discover that true wealth has nothing to do with money, multitasking is a myth, and the elimination of options leads to more choice.

The Happiness Equation is a book that will change how you think about pretty much everything - your time, your career, your relationships, your family, and, ultimately, of course, your happiness.

©2016 Neil Pasricha (P)2016 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

"Neil joined the Audi Executive Team on Customer Immersion events across the United States and his lessons were the highlight of the show, engaging dealer associates and invigorating the audience. His talk was on-point, thought-provoking, and received near-perfect ratings. What more could we ask for?" (Peter Donnellan, director of after sales, Audi of America)

"Neil's models for living life provide a clear window for seeing the world and making tough decisions. He made the University of Ottawa buzz with energy and positivity!" (Nicolette Addesa, VP of university affairs, University of Ottawa)

Voice = super annoying

Good message but voice ruined it. Getting a new reader would greatly improve the audiobook.

Solid content but questionable narration.

While the content was solid I believe the audio presentation would have been stronger and more pleasurable to listen to had a professional narrator read the book.

A mix of good and bad

What did you like best about The Happiness Equation? What did you like least?

The Happiness Equation gives some solid and practical ways of producing happiness in one's self. Pasricha's ideas about starting out happy rather than letting your environment determine your happiness has some truth to it; even if it is nothing new. However, some of the examples he used were god awful. He struggles to admit to others that he attended Harvard so he experiences being inauthentic and that makes him feel bad, gee wiz what's a guy to do. It's not relatable to the vast majority of his audience. He goes on about how he was on the bestseller list with his "awesome" book for way too long and how that 'didn't really make him happy.' Instead he suggests you should "want nothing" and that is part of his equation to finding happiness.
It is a flawed equation. Pasricha's ideas are meant to produce a sort of happiness which really is not sustainable in most people. It is a cookie cutter approach to life, making all your variables line up to produce the same happiness ad nauseam. He talks about never retiring and just doing this approach to enjoying your work and what not FOREVER. Not going to happen for 90% of the population who work themselves to death in dead end jobs anyway.
I'm not surprised to find out the author works at Walmart and enjoys their "culture" and is the type of person to own 7 pairs of the same outfit for simplifying his life. These people are the most neurotic and fearful bunch who hate anyone expressing actual emotions other than obsequious joy.

Would you recommend The Happiness Equation to your friends? Why or why not?

No, there are better books out there.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Neil Pasricha?

Liam Neeson. Pastiche's voice is INSUFFERABLE.

Do you think The Happiness Equation needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No thanks.

The Best Book I Have Read on This Subject!

I was desperately looking for a book to guide me back to the self I thought was lost forever! At midlife : I lost my dog, family member, career, savings, home and any real hope for a future. Neil nailed it, no matter where you are in your life's journey, I believe this book will change your negative spiral and set you on a path to your amazing authentic self! Get the book now! Do not waste anymore of your precious time in despair, confusion, what if thinking! Thank you Neil, excellent job!

Muy práctico, muy completo, me gustó mucho

Me gustó mucho. Lo escuché dos veces porque tenia muchos detalles, mucho contenido que encuentro muy útil. Me hace mucho sentido lo que dice, algunas cosas son de sentido común y otras hasta contra intuitivas. Lo recomiendo completamente. Uno de los libros de felicidad y productividad (ahorro de tiempo) que más me han gustado. Aprendí harto y me entretuve harto.

Excellent book for sure

I really enjoyed this audio book for sure. The author does a great job narrating and I would recommend this book for any professional in today’s western society, or for anyone actually. There are some great analogies and a couple slow sections but overall greatness here. The author does point out the importance of exercise, but I feel that he could do a better job of exploring multiple options. I don’t recall much detail on spending time in nature, which I think is tremendously important for the people that have the luxury of doing so on a regular basis. Though not for everyone, nature can be very healing and could be explored further to expand upon the happiness equation.

good book

I loved a lot of what he had to say. I've read several books along these lines and this one presented some new and interesting ideas.

It felt a bit ego-centric though. Always looking inward to try and figure out what you need to be happy can be shallow. In giving more of yourself you will find more of yourself. He did talk about this in recommending that your job be a contributing thing to society, but much of the rest seemed to be self-interested.

Overall I would recommend it. I took many notes and will refer back to the concepts here.

The science behind happiness.

This book provides statistical and scientific info to support a lot of common spiritual theories. It also provides simple how to's to put what the book talks about into action.

Worth it. I'm about to listen to it again.

I've recommended it to friends. It is both enjoyable and informative at the same time.

Bragging

I feel like this book is a five hour platform of the author bragging about his success of his book.
Having a hard time finishing it.