Do You Want To Succeed? Be Happy Says Alex Kjerulf

Alex Kjerulf should be called Mr. Happy. In fact, I might refer to him as that from now on.

Mr. Happy is a happiness consultant. He’s also an author, Chief Happiness Officer, blogger and a host of other things. Mr. Happy is a busy man.

Please go read Alex’s blog – The Chief Happiness Officer. It’s fun, entertaining and inspirational. You’ll definitely learn something too.

Perhaps the best line in his brief profile on the blog is this, “He has been unemployable ever since he first tried being an entrepreneur.” Makes me laugh.

Alex’s mantra is simple — You can be happy at work. He consults with companies and people on how to get the most out of their jobs and lives.

His book is called Happy Hour is 9 to 5 – How to Love Your Job, Love Your Life and Kick Butt at Work!

Interview Highlights

• Alex tells us why companies should care about happy employees. I’m not sure how anyone could argue against this.
• He nails it when he talks about entrepreneurs and the importance of being happy (and I’d argue “passionate” too) when first starting a business.
• His point about the middle ground – those that don’t love their jobs but also don’t hate their jobs – really resonates with me. It’s the bulk of people in the middle that are harder to motivate and instigate into action.

On With The Interview!

1. Who are you? Please give us some background on yourself – past work experience, and how you got into the happiness business.

I have a background as a consultant, entrepreneur and leader in IT. I have a Masters degree in Computer Science and used to be way more of a geek than I am today.

After working in IT for 8 years, I started getting more and more interested in the people side of business. The IT company I co-founded in 1997 called Enterprise Systems had as its main goal to be a great place to work. Everything else (yes, including profits) came second to that.

When we sold the company in 2002, I decided to leave IT and do something else. That “something else” turned out to be making people happy at work. I’ve been doing that for the last 4 years and loving it. I speak, consult, do workshops, blog and write about happiness at work.

I’m also a motorcyclist, avid sci-fi reader, a part-time fitness professional (yes, I get paid to exercise) and possibly the only person in the world who doesn’t like the taste of chocolate.

2. Are you really that positive all the time?

Yes. In fact, everyone hates being around me, ’cause I’m always annoyingly cheerful…

Actually, no. I have good days and bad days like most other people. Some days I am incredibly annoyed at everything and everybody. Some days I walk around completely, irrationally happy for no good reason. Most days are somewhere in between.

3. Even if Happy Hour is 9 to 5, you must have a favorite time of the workday. Can you tell us what it is and why?

Mornings! I have a daily rhythm that means that I’m creative and focused in the morning from, say, 8-12. I wrote my book entirely before lunch and this is also when I blog. Mornings, I can disappear into the computer for hours at a time.

When I used to code, I reserved mornings for coding and afternoons for housekeeping, documentation and administrative stuff.

I also always try to schedule meetings for lunch or later. In a meeting, no one cares if you’re completely uncreative and unfocused *smirk*

4. Has anyone ever said to you, “Alex, you’re full of it. People just can’t be that happy at work!”

Not to my face *grin*

I’ve gotten a few comments like that on my blog (maybe a handful out of the 3,000 comments on there), so very few people feel that way today. Or else those people don’t read my blog.

And actually, I think that if people want to feel that way, that’s fine. If you want your work life to be dull, boring, uninspiring, gray and lifeless, who am I to stop you.

Most people want to be happy at work, though some don’t think it’s possible. Well, let me tell you: It is! Anyone can be happy at work. Or at least anyone who wants to be.

5. What’s the #1 reason employers should care that employees are happy at work?

I’ll give you two equally important reasons!

• Money. Study after study has demonstrated that happy companies make more money. No wonder, because happy people are more creative and more productive, communicate better, give better customer service, stay longer with the company, take fewer sick days, care more about quality, make fewer mistakes and are more motivated. Basically, happy companies have their unhappy competitors beat in every way.
• It’s the right thing. There are workplaces out there that run their people down, destroy their sense of worth, are havens for bullies, and allow all kinds of harassment. Though it is rarely intentional, these workplaces still make their people unhappy, and mentally and physically ill.

I have no idea how executives and managers of these businesses can live with themselves. They may hide behind the old argument that companies should only care about money—or, as Milton Friedman said it, “The business of business is business.” But reason 1 above shows that this is a false argument because happy businesses make more money.

There is no longer any excuse for tolerating an unhappy work environment, when it’s just as easy to create one that is inspiring, uplifting, healthy and happy—one that is good for people and good for business.

6. I really like this quote from the foreword in your book by Lars Kolind:
“Happy companies will win. Happy companies will grow and happy companies will innovate. The company of the future is–happy.”

What are some examples of happy companies, and how they do it?

Southwest Airlines is a great example. Planes are expensive, and only make you money when they’re flying. On the ground, they’re dead weight.

That’s why keeping turnaround time low, i.e. the time from when a plane lands until it’s back in the air, is the key to profitability in the airline industry. And when every other airline took an hour to do it, Southwest managed to cut it down to around 20 minutes. How do they do it?

• They listen to their people and implement their ideas.
• They have a heck of a lot of fun at work and a positive attitude – in fact, they only hire positive people.
• Their people like to work there, and therefore are motivated to do a great job.

It doesn’t seem that difficult, does it?

7. How big of a problem is the lack of happiness in the work environment?

I think that on the whole, workplaces are getting better. I would certainly rather work in a typical workplace from 2007 than one from 1977. Or 1947 (shudder).

But we’re also seeing serious problems today with stress and burnout that are starting to harm many employees. As I write in the book, the only cure for stress is to be happy at work – working less doesn’t really help.

But maybe the biggest problem isn’t unhappiness at work. Only around 10-15% are actively unhappy at work, and around 20% are very happy at work. The rest (around 70%) are neither. They don’t really mind work, but they don’t hate it enough to change it.

But think about how much better work life is, when you love your job (as opposed to just liking it.) It’s not just a small, gradual improvement, it’s a whole different experience. You go to work excited and come home proud. You look forward to Monday mornings as much as you do to Friday afternoons. You don’t need to spend Sunday evening worrying about the work week ahead of you.

8. What’s the most relevant content in your new book “Happy Hour is 9 to 5″ for entrepreneurs?

That’s gotta be the business case for happiness at work. There’s a tool in the book for evaluating how much time and money happiness at work will make or save your startup. And believe me, those savings can be humongous! And then there are tools for actually achieving that happiness.

Happiness at work is especially important in the startup phase, because startups face harder demands on innovation, customer service, sales and productivity than established companies do. Basically, no startup can succeed without happy people!

9. Do you think entrepreneurs are generally happier than workers at 9 to 5 jobs? If so, why (and if not, why not?)

Yes, and the reason is simple: Entrepreneurs have more influence over their own work situation. A sense of control is highly associated with happiness.

10. Do you have Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry Be Happy” on your iPod?

No. But I do have “Flying” by Nice Little Penguins. It’s gotta be even more annoyingly cheerful.

Conclusion

If you’re not inspired at this point, check your pulse.

A big thank you to Alex “Mr. Happy” Kjerulf for taking the time to answer my questions and doing it so quickly.

Most entrepreneurs will agree that they’re more happy working for themselves than for someone else, and I’d bet most entrepreneurs would rate their own happiness quite highly in terms of what’s important to them.

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