Satisfaction and Happiness, a nice or a must in the working environment ?

A Dear friend of mine wrote recently a nice Medium post on the topic "Are You Happy or Satisfied with Your Career?" which I encourage you to read and comment if so.

As we were exchanging on his paper, he encouraged me to share openly some of my views and self reflections on the subject fed by my experience as an entrepreneur but also as an active member of a Global and Sustainable Health Development Foundation.

Here there are :

I should start with this?trivial notion that there is almost no chance for "career satisfaction" if there is no "job satisfaction" at the start. And as we have seen a huge rise in burn outs and bore outs, and now waves of quitting, I would add happiness should be a necessary but not mandatory condition to progress in corporate career. However, as companies are trying to solve this mistakenly by creating the fancy roles such as "Chief of Happiness Officers", happiness could not be at best decreed, and at worse, forced.

There is no career for an entrepreneur, but a journey.

It is clear that satisfaction is critical issue for a corporate executive and the career is about having her/him moving to through the ladder of roles. If I was cynical, I would add to to move towards a higher level of incompetency in hierarchical organisations according to Peter's principle.

However, for an entrepreneur, the career is more made by a collection of failures and learning by doing. If personal satisfaction, would be a milestone, clearly the majority would have stop their journey before their first success. As a founder and often the CEO, the entrepreneur is already at the top of the ladder, and what matters is moving the service/product from the idea to a successful marketed item not a career progression, leaving aside moving through the ladder of funding rounds, which is another subject...

On a philosophical level, both satisfaction and happiness could be seen as inter-twinning and feeding the other. And intuitively, we could perceive that they occupy a different intimate location in our unique entity.

The satisfaction is a creation of the spirit and the happiness the creation of the soul. The satisfaction in located in the brain, the happiness in the heart, and as a person from the nutritional field I would add the Gut ??.?

• Satisfaction comes from what we do. We are satisfied because we decide to act.
• Happiness comes from what we are. We are happy because we choose to be.
• Happiness is the engine and satisfaction one energy source to get it work.

The satisfaction is fueled by external factors, happiness by internal factors. In the context of the career, the satisfaction might resonate with a team turning itself in an infective satisfaction that makes one's satisfaction a collective piece, so that the move in the ladder is not only justified, but praised by multiple individuals.?This is even more important in the context of the entrepreneurship where in early stages team members might not be paid as much as they deserve but still share a common satisfaction.

I’ve been entrepreneur for more than 20 years and happiness is my only North Star aside my faith. I failed so many times you can’t imagine…. I have missed satisfaction opportunities, but I never lost happiness with the love and long-lasting friendship I receive from my beloved ones. As for satisfaction, I’m a rolling stone and "I can’t get no satisfaction ???". I’m as entrepreneur and a health promotion activist, what is more important is the satisfaction of my team and my partners and users !

French 18th century philosopher Voltaire said "I have chosen to be happy because it is good for my health." I would add because it is also good for my soul...

Being not satisfied after a task, offers a chance to improve it and reach satisfaction at the next trial. But being unhappy will require a journey in our "Soul". But, this is the subject of my next article.

Be Happy and Healthy !