A holocaust survivor who I know once asked me, “who says you are supposed to be happy?”
The question was posed in response to my argument that in the pursuit of happiness, it is sometimes a reasonable choice to deviate from your duty, as defined by religious or cultural norms. My reaction to the question was that it is a sad state of affairs when a person does not consider the pursuit of happiness to be a primary goal. I figured that if the pursuit of happiness is considered to be an inalienable right under the U.S. Declaration of Independence, it is good enough for me.
I agreed with the survivor not a single whit, but I understood how his life experience might have influenced his world view.
For me, happiness is indeed a worthy goal. I think that many would agree, including lawyers, who are not in my experience the happiest folks around. So how do you get there? Is it by earning more money than the next guy?
Dr. Google says that the saying “money cannot buy you happiness” derives from the writings of Jean Jacques Rousseau, who also famously wrote that, “man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.”
In the legal profession, it is not unusual for men and women to find themselves wrapped up in chains while trying to disprove the adage that money cannot buy you happiness. Old J.J. Rousseau would either be very proud, or at least somewhat amused.
Having lived in the legal world for so long and having been bound by the chains that are inherent in chasing money to achieve happiness, imagine my surprise when I came across a book, the premise of which is that happy people do better in law school and in the practice of law than unhappy people. The name of the book is “How to Succeed (And Stay Human) in Law School.” It was written by Professor Lynda Collins and recently published by Emond Montgomery Publications Limited. Unlike my writing, this is an academic publication which cites studies and other scholarly work to support its conclusions.
Professor Collins makes the case that the best way to become successful in the study and practice of law is to first become happy, and then to take steps to preserve your happiness. Her book is an instruction manual on how to go about being happy in law school and beyond.
Now, neither Professor Collins nor myself would argue that being successful is the same thing as earning a lot of money, but for those who do define success in that way, a corollary of her argument is clearly that happiness can indeed buy you money, and that is quite the twist on everything that I learned from the legal establishment.
This article was originally published by Law360 Canada, part of LexisNexis Canada Inc.