Happiness Is a Business Strategy

“Do what makes you happy. If this isn’t the place for you, leave.”

I was probably the strangest founder some people had ever worked for.

I know many companies today are reducing headcount as they adapt to AI, there has been constant layoffs and restructuring.

My story is different.

This happened long before AI became part of the conversation. It wasn’t about replacing people with technology or cutting costs. It was about something far more human: happiness.

Some leaders try to retain every employee they can. I often did the opposite. Whenever someone told me they felt anxious or emotionally exhausted at work, I would sit down with them and sincerely say,

“It’s okay to leave. I genuinely want you to be happy.”

I wasn’t trying to push them out.

I meant every word.

We spend more than 40 hours every week working.

40 hours! minimum.

If most of those hours are filled with dread, resentment, anxiety, or the feeling that you’re slowly abandoning yourself, why would you voluntarily keep living that way?

Life is already short.

Why spend most of it somewhere that slowly drains you?

During my startup years, I held countless one-on-one meetings with team members. Our company was growing, but so were the challenges. We faced constant growing pains, navigated the uncertainty of the pandemic, and spent much of that time in survival mode. We were constantly overwhelmed.

Long hours. Business trips. Tight deadlines. Hiring.

The usual chaos.

Being busy wasn’t what made us unhappy. I remembered being a child, completely immersed in play without realizing hours had passed. I thought about artists who paint until sunrise. Programmers who happily lose track of time while building. Monastics who spend countless hours studying and meditating without feeling imprisoned by time.

When something carries meaning, effort doesn’t disappear. The work remains difficult. The relationship to the work becomes different.

People often assume founders want employees to stay at all costs.

The truth is, replacing someone is expensive. I’ve spent hours reviewing hundreds resumes. Working with HR agencies, head hunters. Conducting interviews. Training. Helping new hires adapt. Building culture. Watching teams rebuild trust after departures.

Every resignation carries financial costs that rarely appear on a balance sheet.

Yet I still encouraged unhappy people to leave.

Why?

Because unhappiness is also expensive.

One deeply disengaged person affects meetings.

Energy.

Creativity.

Communication.

Clients.

Culture.

Eventually everyone begins carrying emotional weight that doesn’t belong to them.

People underestimate how contagious emotional states are.

Enthusiasm spreads.

So does resentment.

Before suggesting anyone leave, I always listened first.

Sometimes for hours. People needed space to vent. To be heard. To untangle what they were actually feeling. Only then did we ask harder questions together.

Is this a personal challenge?

An organizational problem?

A communication issue?

Or simply a mismatch between this person and this environment?

Sometimes we could redesign responsibilities.

Sometimes expectations needed clarification.

Sometimes leadership needed to improve.

Sometimes the employee needed a different perspective.

And sometimes… Leaving was genuinely the healthiest decision.

One of the Buddha’s teachings in the Noble Eightfold Path is Right Livelihood.

Many people interpret it simply as choosing an ethical profession.

That matters.

But I think it asks something deeper.

Does your work cultivate greed?

Hatred?

Delusion?

Or does it cultivate wisdom, generosity, compassion, and inner freedom?

Right Livelihood isn’t only about what you do.

It’s also about who you become while doing it.

If your work consistently turns you into someone more bitter, cynical, dishonest, or emotionally depleted, it’s worth asking difficult questions.

Likewise, organizations have responsibilities too.

A company can make money while slowly exhausting the people who create that value.

That’s not sustainable leadership.

So what should you do if you’re unhappy?

I’ve found there are usually four possibilities.

1. Change your perspective.

Sometimes the workplace isn’t the problem. Your lens is.

Perhaps you’ve been viewing your manager as an enemy instead of someone carrying different pressures. Perhaps you’ve only been noticing what’s wrong while ignoring what you’re learning.

Sometimes changing our thinking changes our experience. Not always. But often enough to be worth trying first.

2. Speak honestly.

Many workplaces are filled with conversations happening everywhere except where they should. People complain after meetings. In private chats. Gossips. Over coffee.

Never to the people who could actually improve the situation.

The Buddha placed Right Speech alongside Right Livelihood for a reason. Truthful, timely, and constructive communication prevents enormous amounts of unnecessary suffering.

If something genuinely needs to improve, say it.

Respectfully.

Offer ideas.

Participate in building the culture you wish existed. Complaining in secret rarely changes systems. Conversations do.

3. Maybe you’re simply in the wrong place.

Not every environment is meant for every person.

Finding the right fit isn’t failure. It’s discernment. You don’t buy every pair of pants that fits your size. Likewise, just because a company hired you doesn’t mean it’s where you’re meant to spend years of your life.

Are you learning? Growing professionally?

Working with people you respect?

Contributing something meaningful?

Developing resilience?

Building friendships?

Being fairly compensated?

Do you believe in the mission?

Can you occasionally laugh with your colleagues and genuinely have some fun at work (however you define ‘fun’)?

If the answer to nearly all of these is “no,” perhaps the problem isn’t you. Perhaps it’s simply not your place anymore. Leaving isn’t always giving up.

Sometimes it’s making room for better alignment.

4. Or maybe... you need to stay.

This is the harder possibility. Some people simply repeat the same cycle.

Every new job feels exciting. Then comes discomfort.

Conflict.

Feedback.

Responsibility.

Growth.

Then another resignation. Another fresh start. Eventually the pattern follows them everywhere.

We often mistake escaping discomfort for solving it.

Sometimes the most compassionate thing we can do for ourselves is remain long enough to learn the lesson that keeps following us.

Practice Right Effort.

Stay a little longer.

Develop the difficult conversation.

Build resilience.

Finish what you started.

Not because suffering is noble. But because growth often hides inside temporary discomfort.

Leadership taught me: people don’t leave companies only because of salaries. Nor because of workloads.

They leave because somewhere along the way they stop believing they can flourish there. They leave because unhealthy workplace relationships become contagious, spreading through the team much like the flu.

We cannot create happiness for anyone.

But we can create environments where people have a better chance of finding it.

As employees, we cannot expect every workplace to revolve around our preferences.

But we can choose honesty over resentment.

Growth over comfort.

And alignment over quiet misery.

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