happiness - Publications - Faculty & Research

Portrait Project

Sue Yang

lifelong friendships, welcoming communities, and new career possibilities. They also found an abundance of resources to enrich my childhood on little means – I grew up a young and happy denizen of its public museums, libraries, and... View Details

Portrait Project

Antonio Rocha

Until January of 2010, I was following the script. I graduated from university, got a good job, moved to a bigger city, got married. However, I could feel that I was not as happy as I wanted. Three months later, I was accepted to Harvard... View Details

Portrait Project

Sadiq Gillani

believe one day the airline industry will make money. It will have happy workers. It will be a pleasure to fly. I am going to devote my life to fixing existing airlines and creating new ones to improve people's lives, particularly in the... View Details

19 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Your Customers: Use Them or Lose Them

customer is such an apparent risk that the quoted Progressive rate is higher than the competition's, Progressive is happy if that customer goes elsewhere to buy cheaper insurance. "They are happy to... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

01 Jun 2025
News

Making Difficult Decisions: The General Manager’s Job

Edmondson and Joe Fuller picked it up after Garvin’s death in 2017 and retitled it Becoming a General Manager—and then retitled it again, Making Difficult Decisions, in 2023. Zuzul joined this year, and it’s been a happy reunion with... View Details

Keywords: Jen Mcfarland Flint; Illustration by Peter Arkle; Educational Support Services; Educational Services

29 Jan 2021
Blog Post

My HBS Student Loan Story: John Cortines (MBA 2015)

likely would have been eligible for another couple of years of LRAP funding, but we were really grateful for how much the LRAP funding had already helped us and were happy to knock out our debt and let other future students enjoy the... View Details

01 May 2017
Blog Post

Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone at HBS

community with others in my section. By design, the emphasis on the section experience forced me outside of my comfort zone. And I’m so happy it did. Being the Student Association Co-President has been my most rewarding experience... View Details

22 Mar 2017
Blog Post

3 Lessons I Learned as a Social Enterprise Summer Fellow

involved in social enterprise at HBS, and it has strongly influenced how I’m looking at different post-MBA options. From choices about work-life tradeoffs, to reading habits, to views on what makes a healthy lifestyle, the values of our colleagues can have a lasting... View Details

25 Jun 2018
News

An Unfinished Story

immigration stories? We just asked. Most people were very willing to tell their family stories. Of course, not all of them are happy stories. It was more difficult to get the stories of African Americans, because many of their relatives... View Details

Keywords: April White

26 May 2016
News

Alan F. Horn, MBA 1971

the most popular television shows ever. He then joined Warner Bros., greenlighting film projects that included three Batman films, Happy Feet, and one of Hollywood’s biggest sensations, the Harry Potter series. “If one just puts his head... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

04 Nov 2014
News

Fundación México en Harvard Celebrates 25 Years

financial reasons,” says Ortiz-Monasterio. “To put it in Hollywood terms, one could say this is a happy ending. But it is not an ending. We’re just through our first 25 years!” View Details

Keywords: April White

01 Oct 2002
News

What's Cookin'

Tropical's Nick Castaldo: “When you see employees who take pride in what they're doing and long lines of happy customers, it's terrifically satisfying.” Nick Castaldo is CEO of Miami-based Pollo Tropical, a chain of 54 quick-service... View Details

Keywords: Hanna, Julia

Career Coach

Okan Okutgen

students. Okan has personal interest in environmental sustainability and angel investing as well and is happy to share his experiences with students and alumni discovering these paths. Finally as a parent in a dual career household with a... View Details

Portrait Project

Michael Newton

seeking to maximize. While I have big goals, perhaps bigger than most, I hope to create a home as content and happy as Andrew's without constantly feeling the need to look for the next thing. I think I have a good shot. My dad's blog is a... View Details

24 Apr 2014
News

Creating connections among consumers

embraced technology and tools that make it easier for members to access reviews and deals. “Our members want help with hiring decisions that have a high cost of failure if done improperly, so they’re happy to pay for reliable... View Details

24 Sep 2021
Blog Post

Is the MBA Worth It? Hear What Recent HBS Grads Have to Say (Part 2)

those two years getting more experience. The problem is that most people who hear that argument have only experienced a tiny fraction of the universe of career possibilities. I believe that the key to a happy life (or a successful... View Details

02 Jun 2021
Blog Post

Paul’s Sabbatical Story: Hypothesis-Testing by Sabbaticals

the eco-lodge showed him that there’s no such thing as utopia; he was surprised by things he missed—intellectual challenge and his community—back home. His time in Estonia proved to be just as valuable. He’s no longer pinning his hopes for View Details

Portrait Project

Clare Hawthorne

got a bonus in my allowance for reconciling a year's worth of my parents' bank statements. It's not that I'm drawn to the tedium per se, but rather that I'm happy to do tedious work when I leave a legacy of improvement. This partially... View Details

01 Jun 2004
News

Consultant on the Go

Most business travelers breathe a sigh of relief when they return home, happy to unpack their suitcase and sleep in their own bed. Ram Charan (MBA ’65, DBA ’67) is not your typical business traveler. One of the “world’s most renowned... View Details

Keywords: Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

10 Apr 2014
Blog Post

HBS FIELD 2 - A good sneak-peek into consulting

it seems that you won’t get to anything valuable But the responses appear in the end if the work has been done properly”. Before leaving Malaysia we made our final presentation to the CEO. He was satisfied with the results, happy to... View Details

Keywords: Consulting

Publications