Does happiness lead to success? Vice versa?

This thing I was watching (Fine. It was SoulPancake again. Get off me) asked a bunch of randoms to come in for an experiment. The first part was to offer half the subjects snacks and the others nada. The second involved giving them a puzzle to solve requiring critical thinking.

How fortuitous! Free Brazilian! #doityourself
How fortuitous! Free Brazilian! #doityourself

*Okay, before we go any further, let’s see what you’d do:

1. You’re given thumbtacks, box of matches, a piece of corkboard, and a candle.

2. Affix the candle to the board in a way where wax won’t slide down the board once candle is lit.

3. Use matches to light candle and test your answer.

Because I tend to be “first-solution-that-comes-to-mind” obsessive, I had trouble thinking outside the matchbox and seeing the simple, easy solution. Thusly, the moment I thought about lighting the board on fire instead (and using the thumbtacks as throwing stars against anyone trying to put it out), I really couldn’t be bothered with thinking about anything else. Affixing luminaries became a tedious task when there was cork to be immolated.

Apparently, I’m not the only one.

That, or normal people need motivational fuel to educe endorphins from themselves before they’re willing to critically think. This was evident as people who mindlessly nommed on unpronounceable ingredient infused foods pre-project attacking, did quite well. They reached solutions that were clean and simple. Contrarily, the control group obfuscated the problem – resorting to melting candles and squashing them against the board (that would’ve been my second choice).

So, the question became “Does success lead to happiness?” or “Does happiness lead to success?”

(The snacks being the happiness driver and the success being the right solution).

Some might argue the latter – that kids raised in happy households will grow to be successful (I mean real happiness – not “I don’t understand why Bobby became a junkie. We gave him free money and his dad bought him a car before melting into his career, never to be seen again…”)

But, wait. Aren’t we forgetting “unhappiness”? There’s a saying, “In desperation we find hope.” And lack of snacks isn’t exactly unhappiness. It’s a baseline (unless you’re addicted to them and going through chip withdrawal during the study). I’ve seen TED talks about kids raised in the ghettos who used teasing, adversity, and cruel kids at school offering bullshit logic like, “You can’t be an astronaut – you’re a girrrrl”. You know what? They used that to become what many deem successful.


(^ love this betch. She was raised in the ghetto and her mom had to adjust her bed as a kid so bullets wouldn’t hit their heads. She dreamt of working for NASA, so she got a tutor. When she failed her first big math test she studied so hard for, she kept going anyway. Now she’s a rocket scientist.)

The question at hand seems like an opinion inquiry. That’s half true. The “chicken-egg” part varies from person to person.

Some restructure their brain if sadness, fear, and anger are enough to spur practical change (daily ritual reordering in thoughts and habits is harder the older you get).

Some can see the dangling carrot and work toward it.

Others need a bite of it first.

The only opinion element about it is how you measure success itself. And success is generally founded on smaller successes. We see what we can do and work for more (or else lose it all by pausing to mentally masturbate over our latest milestone).

Some days just waking up and joining the world is a victory for me. I do it, albeit reluctantly. Success.

It’s not until after the religious experience that is caffeine – that I put on my cape, grab my scepter, march out the door, and eff the world in it’s face – one thrust at a time.

Boom. Success following happiness following success.

*What was your solution to the corkboard task?