9 ms·

Being unhappy running a successful business

58 points by epi0Bauqu 16y ago

greenlblue 16y ago
?? So what was the lesson? Hang out with a fat dude that spits out proverbs like the best of them?
- notahacker 16y ago
  Money can't buy recognition of talent or self-discipline but it can buy you girls in a KTV lounge and a hangover? it's like an updated, amoral version of A Christmas Carol...
wccrawford 16y ago
Newsflash: Unhappy people are not made happy simply by having more money. If you don't enjoy life, you're doing it wrong. The secret isn't any material thing. It isn't 'who you hang out with'. It's who you are. If you don't like life, change yourself until you do. Learn to enjoy things, instead of simply using them. Learn to enjoy accomplishments, instead of using them as goals on your way to happiness. I hope we aren't supposed to believe this was a real story, either. Unhappy people don't turn around in 1 night. You can't show someone that other people are happy and have them wake up the next morning realizing how to be happy themselves. You have to work at it, and realize that the unhappiness is you and the only way to change it is to change yourself.
- kilian 16y ago
  I enjoyed reading this, as it is a nice story, but wccrawford has a point. Happiness is internal, not external. It's a choice and a habit, not a situation.
Luc 16y ago
I can't help but hear the sound of my bullshit detector when I read your stories, 'Max'. I am sorry and apologize if what you write is all true.
- td 16y ago
  I think it should be read as a parable, not a true story. I think Max, who- or whatever he really is, once stated he's consciously creating some kind of online persona? No idea what he intends to achieve, though.
  - prs 16y ago
    To my eyes, Max Klein headlines occasionally look as if penned by Tim Ferriss.
  - charleso 16y ago
    So the 'successful business' which sprang from nowhere over the past year doesn't actually exist? The whole 'relocate to China to save a few bucks' craziness didn't really happen? That would explain a lot, as this emerging story reads more like a fictional dot.com tale. Edit: Thanks PRS. I won't be wasting time with 'Max Klein' posts in the future.
  - mattm 16y ago
    The mentor in the story is most likely many different people or the man Max Klein would like to be in his life. If they are many different people, he just rolled them all into one for story telling. I can't see how someone who purposefully picks fights could be considered a valuable mentor though.
- prs 16y ago
  http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353307 http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353307 yields the following information: Max Klein does not exist. He is an identity created by Mark Essien (www.essien.org). The posting is worth a read in my opinion.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - dhimes 16y ago
    wow- where did that website come from??
swombat 16y ago
“Enjoying life has nothing to do with what you have, it has to do with who you are hanging out with”. Umm, I can't agree with that. You need a new mentor, Max. Enjoying life indeed has nothing to do with what you have. It also has nothing to do with who you go get drunk with. Enjoying life has to do with who you are, and what your perspective on life is. Some people enjoy solitudes, others enjoy being with close friends, others enjoy being adored by infinite crowds. Some people are happy sitting alone on a grassy hill with half a penny in their pockets, others are miserable even as millionaires surrounded by the best and cleverest people in the world. Happiness comes from inside, not outside.
- Retric 16y ago
  There is a lot of evidence that Happiness is much like IQ in that you are born with a basic peak and while it can be dragged down there is little that can rise it. For the most part, outside of extraordinary circumstances it's fairly constant over your lifetime. PS: And yes this means there are probably people in the middle of a 20 year prison sentence that are on average happier than you are.
  - chokma 16y ago
    According to studies cited by Sonjy Lyubomirsky (http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~sonja/ http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~sonja/ ) in her Book "The how of happiness" (a happiness book from a scientific view), the genetic predisposition is about 50%. 10% is your environment, and the rest is what you do with your life. So, there is room for improvement for most people, although not as much as some happiness-gurus may like them to think.
- heed 16y ago
  >Happiness comes from inside, not outside. Unless of course it's your perspective to believe otherwise. ;)
- sliverstorm 16y ago
  > Enjoying life indeed has nothing to do with what you have Obviously you have enough food and shelter, or you would be singing a somewhat different tune. It's hard to enjoy yourself and be happy when you are truly hungry, or cold and wet in the night. Of course you can be happy with less than luxurious housing, or sub-par food, but have you ever felt the stab of hunger, the wrenching pain in your stomach, not that wimpy little ache you get after 12 hours of fasting? Enjoying life has something to do with what you have.
antidaily 16y ago
I sat at the top of the tower in hong kong and looked out over the bay. The bed I sat on was expensive, the writing pad on the desk was made of heavy expensive paper. groan...
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- maxklein 16y ago
  Frankly, I groan too. It was really badly written and I will change it.
inodeman 16y ago
If you're feeling unhappy even when successful that means, there are issues you need to work on, could be childhood trauma, child abuse, etc. I went through the same thing and could not figure out why I w as feeling like shit when I was making tons of money. Ultimately found the reason. Started going to a ---> --Gestalt-- Psychologist therapist, It's been over a year and it has changed my life enormously. Discovered I had resentment against my parents for many many reasons, worked on that and feel happier than ever. Give it a shot
- neilk 16y ago
  No. The reason why you might be unhappy although successful is because success has nothing to do with happiness. I'm happy you worked your issues out, but you might have been just as happy doing the therapy first. In fact, maybe you would not have chosen a "tons of money" job.
DanielBMarkham 16y ago
One of the worser ones, Max. Over the past few years, just hanging out on HN, I've read a lot about happiness and pleasure. I've even had some great books recommended by fellow HN'ers (latest one is the science of pleasure. Great read so far! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393066320?ie=UTF8&tag=whtofi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0393066320 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393066320?ie=UTF8&tag=...) And none of it tracks with your blog entry. One of the interesting things that has happened in the last decade or so has been a serious study at just what happiness and pleasure really is. I wish I could give some trite answer, but the real answers are much more interesting. Things like experiences beat possessions, or the great beauty of essentialism. In all of that reading, I've never read anything that jived with your blog post. I think I'm getting the happy bit. The more interesting bit is whether or not people are made to be unhappy. I'm not so sure total happiness is a good thing. (which sounds really strange, huh?)
Sindrome 16y ago
An interesting piece of fiction. I guess it was a nice change of pace from the other stuff on here today.
flannell 16y ago
Having money gives you options, having no money gives you limited options and being in debt you have none. Simples.
plainOldText 16y ago
I think the author meant to depict what happened to him and not necessarily what's his take on life.

58 points by epi0Bauqu 16y ago

greenlblue 16y ago

?? So what was the lesson? Hang out with a fat dude that spits out proverbs like the best of them?

notahacker 16y ago
Money can't buy recognition of talent or self-discipline but it can buy you girls in a KTV lounge and a hangover? it's like an updated, amoral version of A Christmas Carol...

wccrawford 16y ago

Newsflash: Unhappy people are not made happy simply by having more money. If you don't enjoy life, you're doing it wrong. The secret isn't any material thing. It isn't 'who you hang out with'. It's who you are. If you don't like life, change yourself until you do. Learn to enjoy things, instead of simply using them. Learn to enjoy accomplishments, instead of using them as goals on your way to happiness. I hope we aren't supposed to believe this was a real story, either. Unhappy people don't turn around in 1 night. You can't show someone that other people are happy and have them wake up the next morning realizing how to be happy themselves. You have to work at it, and realize that the unhappiness is you and the only way to change it is to change yourself.

kilian 16y ago
I enjoyed reading this, as it is a nice story, but wccrawford has a point. Happiness is internal, not external. It's a choice and a habit, not a situation.

Luc 16y ago

I can't help but hear the sound of my bullshit detector when I read your stories, 'Max'. I am sorry and apologize if what you write is all true.

td 16y ago
I think it should be read as a parable, not a true story. I think Max, who- or whatever he really is, once stated he's consciously creating some kind of online persona? No idea what he intends to achieve, though.
- prs 16y ago
  To my eyes, Max Klein headlines occasionally look as if penned by Tim Ferriss.
- charleso 16y ago
  So the 'successful business' which sprang from nowhere over the past year doesn't actually exist? The whole 'relocate to China to save a few bucks' craziness didn't really happen? That would explain a lot, as this emerging story reads more like a fictional dot.com tale. Edit: Thanks PRS. I won't be wasting time with 'Max Klein' posts in the future.
- mattm 16y ago
  The mentor in the story is most likely many different people or the man Max Klein would like to be in his life. If they are many different people, he just rolled them all into one for story telling. I can't see how someone who purposefully picks fights could be considered a valuable mentor though.
prs 16y ago
http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353307 http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353307 yields the following information: Max Klein does not exist. He is an identity created by Mark Essien (www.essien.org). The posting is worth a read in my opinion.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- dhimes 16y ago
  wow- where did that website come from??

swombat 16y ago

“Enjoying life has nothing to do with what you have, it has to do with who you are hanging out with”. Umm, I can't agree with that. You need a new mentor, Max. Enjoying life indeed has nothing to do with what you have. It also has nothing to do with who you go get drunk with. Enjoying life has to do with who you are, and what your perspective on life is. Some people enjoy solitudes, others enjoy being with close friends, others enjoy being adored by infinite crowds. Some people are happy sitting alone on a grassy hill with half a penny in their pockets, others are miserable even as millionaires surrounded by the best and cleverest people in the world. Happiness comes from inside, not outside.

Retric 16y ago
There is a lot of evidence that Happiness is much like IQ in that you are born with a basic peak and while it can be dragged down there is little that can rise it. For the most part, outside of extraordinary circumstances it's fairly constant over your lifetime. PS: And yes this means there are probably people in the middle of a 20 year prison sentence that are on average happier than you are.
- chokma 16y ago
  According to studies cited by Sonjy Lyubomirsky (http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~sonja/ http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~sonja/ ) in her Book "The how of happiness" (a happiness book from a scientific view), the genetic predisposition is about 50%. 10% is your environment, and the rest is what you do with your life. So, there is room for improvement for most people, although not as much as some happiness-gurus may like them to think.
heed 16y ago
>Happiness comes from inside, not outside. Unless of course it's your perspective to believe otherwise. ;)
sliverstorm 16y ago
> Enjoying life indeed has nothing to do with what you have Obviously you have enough food and shelter, or you would be singing a somewhat different tune. It's hard to enjoy yourself and be happy when you are truly hungry, or cold and wet in the night. Of course you can be happy with less than luxurious housing, or sub-par food, but have you ever felt the stab of hunger, the wrenching pain in your stomach, not that wimpy little ache you get after 12 hours of fasting? Enjoying life has something to do with what you have.

antidaily 16y ago

I sat at the top of the tower in hong kong and looked out over the bay. The bed I sat on was expensive, the writing pad on the desk was made of heavy expensive paper. groan...

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
maxklein 16y ago
Frankly, I groan too. It was really badly written and I will change it.

inodeman 16y ago

If you're feeling unhappy even when successful that means, there are issues you need to work on, could be childhood trauma, child abuse, etc. I went through the same thing and could not figure out why I w as feeling like shit when I was making tons of money. Ultimately found the reason. Started going to a ---> --Gestalt-- Psychologist therapist, It's been over a year and it has changed my life enormously. Discovered I had resentment against my parents for many many reasons, worked on that and feel happier than ever. Give it a shot

neilk 16y ago
No. The reason why you might be unhappy although successful is because success has nothing to do with happiness. I'm happy you worked your issues out, but you might have been just as happy doing the therapy first. In fact, maybe you would not have chosen a "tons of money" job.

DanielBMarkham 16y ago

One of the worser ones, Max. Over the past few years, just hanging out on HN, I've read a lot about happiness and pleasure. I've even had some great books recommended by fellow HN'ers (latest one is the science of pleasure. Great read so far! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393066320?ie=UTF8&tag=whtofi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0393066320 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393066320?ie=UTF8&tag=...) And none of it tracks with your blog entry. One of the interesting things that has happened in the last decade or so has been a serious study at just what happiness and pleasure really is. I wish I could give some trite answer, but the real answers are much more interesting. Things like experiences beat possessions, or the great beauty of essentialism. In all of that reading, I've never read anything that jived with your blog post. I think I'm getting the happy bit. The more interesting bit is whether or not people are made to be unhappy. I'm not so sure total happiness is a good thing. (which sounds really strange, huh?)

Sindrome 16y ago

An interesting piece of fiction. I guess it was a nice change of pace from the other stuff on here today.

flannell 16y ago

Having money gives you options, having no money gives you limited options and being in debt you have none. Simples.

plainOldText 16y ago

I think the author meant to depict what happened to him and not necessarily what's his take on life.