If you’re running a small business, you’ve probably found yourself chasing goals that once felt like the holy grail—that revenue milestone, a full order book, finally taking on your first employee. And yet, the buzz fades. What happened to that happiness you were promised?
Welcome to the “Yuck to Yum” shift. It turns out that a lot of what we believe about happiness is wrong. Recent insights from ClearerThinking.org and Greater Good Science Center, and decades of psychological research, suggest it’s time to reset the scorecard on what truly makes us happy—in life and in business.
Money Helps, But Not Forever
According to research, money boosts happiness—but only to a point. The relationship is logarithmic. Doubling your income from a low base has a major impact. But after a comfortable threshold (think: not worrying about mortgage or the electricity bill), the happiness curve flattens.
Nobel laureates Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton famously published in their 2010 study, and Matthew Killingworth later challenged, that emotional well-being increases with income but only markedly up to about $75,000. After that, happiness increases with income only for people with emotional well-being. In other words, if you are unhappy, money is not the solution.
Business takeaway: Don’t design your entire strategy around growth for growth’s sake. It can be a cancer. We’ve talked about this in Is Growth Good? Beyond covering your essentials and a few comforts, chasing the next zero on your profits won’t make you significantly happier. Instead, consider reinvesting in people, systems, or your own time.
Relationships Over Revenue
Time and again, research shows that social connection is the number one predictor of long-term happiness. Not flashier kit. Not winning that award. Not outpacing the competition.
The Harvard Study of Adult Development—one of the longest studies on happiness—concluded that strong relationships are the best predictor of both happiness and health.
Business takeaway: Build your business around people. That includes your team, your clients, your suppliers—even your competitors. Strong relationships lead to trust, loyalty, and resilience. Think less “networking,” more “meaningful human connection.”
Purpose, Not Just Progress
We often pin our happiness to big milestones: a new premises, that big contract, a long-awaited exit. We recently talked about how elusive that exit can be. But these bring only temporary spikes. Soon, it’s back to normal. You must have seen this amongst your team – give them a pay rise and 3 months later it’s their new normal.
Psychologist Dan Gilbert, in Stumbling on Happiness, explains that we often overestimate how much future achievements will improve our happiness. What sustains us? Purpose.
Business takeaway: Find purpose and enjoyment in the journey, not just the destination. That could mean helping clients succeed, mentoring new entrepreneurs, or building a culture that you’re proud of. Purpose is the long-term fuel that keeps your engine running.
You Can Build Happiness into the Day-to-Day
Here’s the empowering bit: 30-40% of our happiness is shaped by intentional habits. That’s a significant lever. According to Sonja Lyubomirsky’s Sustainable Happiness Model, genetics and circumstances matter, but so do your choices.
Business takeaway: Introduce simple rituals that bring joy and stability. Morning check-ins with your team. Reflective end-of-week reviews. Gratitude shout-outs. Don’t make them formulaic but do make them sincere. These small things add up.
In fact, Lyubomirsky’s research shows that regular gratitude practices can significantly improve happiness and reduce symptoms of depression.
Beware the Hedonic Treadmill
No matter how big your last win, you adapt. The new normal kicks in. That’s the “hedonic treadmill”: you keep running, but happiness doesn’t move.
Business takeaway: Break the cycle by regularly stepping off the treadmill. Celebrate. Reflect. Reset. Build in time to acknowledge how far you’ve come before setting the next goal. Whilst it’s good to look forward, you need to look back and see distance travelled and enjoy it. In more detail Success doesn’t create happiness: happiness creates success.
The “Yuck to Yum” Mindset
Psychologist Dacher Keltner describes how we often overthink what should make us happy, chasing an idealised version of contentment while ignoring the “yuck” moments that actually shape our lives. When we let go of trying to perfect our happiness, we can turn the raw ingredients of everyday experience into something deeply satisfying. In short, enjoy the moment, and don’t spend time analysing it, as you lose the joy.
That client who ghosted you? Yuck. But maybe it gave you the nudge to find better-aligned customers. The delivery fail? Yuck. But now you’ve improved your logistics. The team meeting where nothing got decided? Double yuck. But now you know what clarity looks like.
Happiness isn’t always found in the obvious “yum” moments. It’s often about what you make of the “yuck”.
Practical Tools for Happy Business Owners
| Strategy | Why It Works | How to Implement |
| Scale revenue smartly | More money helps—but not endlessly | Reinvest in time, health, and learning instead of endless hustle |
| Nurture relationships | Connection boosts resilience and happiness | Regular 1:1s, team lunches, authentic client care |
| Embed purpose | Sustains motivation beyond wins | Tie daily tasks to your values and mission |
| Design happy habits | Small changes have big impact | Start meetings with gratitude, end weeks with reflection |
| Reset your reward loop | Avoid burnout from goal-chasing | Celebrate progress, not just big outcomes |
Final Thought: Better Business, Happier Life
If you’re building a business, you’re also building a life. How is your work-life balance? Or should it be life-work balance? Here’s how to get it and keep it. And it turns out the blueprint for both is the same: meaningful work, strong relationships, purposeful progress, and room to savour the small wins.
So next time you’re tempted to sprint to the next big thing, pause. Ask yourself: is this a yuck I can turn to yum? Chances are, you already have the ingredients.
How we can help you
We have been here before and we have all the tools and expertise to help you create plans that are agile, flexible and resilient, so that you will have strategies in place to overcome the unexpected, mitigate their effect, or avoid them. We can help you monitor the results, model any changes you want to make, listen and discuss with you the best ways of achieving your goals. My book Understanding the Numbers: Make Your Business and Your Life Better helps you avoid mistakes that lowers business value, that I’ve seen time and time again.
Further Reading:
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky
- Stumbling on Happiness by Dan Gilbert
- Robert Waldinger’s TED Talk: What Makes a Good Life?