The Happiness Advantage

Shawn Achor has made happiness his life’s work. As CEO of GoodThink Inc., Achor researches positive outliers – people who perform well above average – to understand the intersections of potential, success and happiness. Organizations apply the findings to create more-positive and more-productive workplaces. According to Achor, his Happiness Advantage training has become one of the largest and most successful positive psychology corporate training programs in the world.

Happiness leads to success in nearly every domain, including work, health, friendship, sociability, creativity and energy. Shawn Achor

First published in 2010, Achor’s book came amid a flood of new research into positivity and flourishing that emerged in the 2000s and the early 2010s. Psychologist Martin Seligman, the dean of positive thinking, introduced core concepts and offered a set of strength-based tools for building happiness in his 2002 book, Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. Barbara Fredrickson’s Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace the Hidden Strength of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, and Thrive followed in 2009, expanding the concept of happiness to a more embracing notion of positivity.