Are you really happy in life?

Abhinav Jain

3 min readJan 24, 2023

Q. What’s your dream job?
A. “I don’t dream of labor”.

Q. What do you want to be when you grow up?
A. “Happy.”

Q. What’s your dream company?
A. “Of my friends and family.”

Q. Where do you see yourself in your career?
A. “In my hometown, gardening.”

I’d like to remind people that we have been brainwashed into thinking that “work and life need to be balanced”.

NO.

You balance things that are equally important. Work is a small part of life, not an equal to it.

Work should never be a comparable to life. Work is a subset, a tiny factor of what makes your life.

Keep it that way.

Because honestly, companies you work for don’t balance employee-welfare and profits as equals.

Employees are a P&L item. Not the end-goal. That’s it.

The ONLY Bottom line for capitalist corporations is profit. Employee happiness is a line item that is a ‘factor’ in calculating the profit.

So why make your work the bottom line of your life? Make it a line item, that is factored in to calculate the final bottom line of your life — your happiness.

Don’t ‘balance’ work life. Prioritize life, and ‘fit in’ work where it is appropriate. Not more, not less.

PS: And if you’re passionate for your work, be passionate about the vision, the solution, the people who’s needs you are catering to. Not about career day, employee of the month or promotions. That’s not passion. That’s service. Don’t be a line item in the P&L, if you are passionate. Be passionate about WHY someone is building that P&L, in that business line, for that set of customers. Don’t confuse productivity with passion.