In 1998, an MBA student asked Warren Buffett a question: "What would you do to live a happier life if you could start all over again?"
Buffett's answer surprised everyone.
"This will sound disgusting, but the only thing would be to select a gene pool where people lived to 120."
But then he said something that revealed everything: If he could actually go back and live life all over again, he probably wouldn't take it.
I think about this story often.
Here's one of the world's richest people, asked about happiness, and his first instinct isn't more money or different choices. It's more time.
He's having so much fun that he wants it to last longer.
Most of us have this backwards.
We think happiness comes from changing our circumstances. Different job, different city, different relationship.
But Buffett was already doing what he loved long before he became successful. "I only work with people I like. If I could make $100 million with a guy who causes my stomach to churn, I'd say no."
There's something profound here about how we think about happiness.
We treat it like a destination instead of a byproduct.
We optimize for the outcome instead of the process.
But Buffett found his formula early: do work you love with people you like. Everything else was just math.
This is why Jordan Peterson's advice works so well.
He tells people to write for 15 minutes about what their life could look like if they got their act together.
Not some fantasy version where you're perfect. Just a rough sketch of who you could become if you stopped getting in your own way.
The magic isn't in the writing. It's in having something to move toward. Because the positive emotion doesn't come from having goals.
It comes from pursuing them.
Here's what changed my perspective:
Happiness isn't something you chase.
It's something you notice when you're too busy doing meaningful work to think about whether you're happy.
Maybe the question isn't "How can I be happier?"
Maybe it's "What would I do even if no one paid me?"
Buffett figured this out at 25. But it's never too late to start.
The best time was yesterday. The second best time is now.
Read next: What To Do To Be Successful
The 70% rule that changes everything
“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.” — Jim Rohn
Thank you for sharing this, Daniil.
It’s a great reminder that happiness isn’t a destination but a side effect of living with intention. Choosing who we spend our time with might be just as important as what we do.