Silverman: True happiness comes from hindsight fulfillment, not present ease
Josh Silverman · 20VC: Etsy CEO, Josh Silverman on 2 Defining Traits of Great Leadership, The Danger of Attaching Happiness To Milestones, How To Structure Teams To Optimise for Experimentation and Agility &Whether You Learn More From Success Than Failure · Jan 18, 2021 · at 13:43
Josh Silverman, CEO of Etsy, reflects on personal happiness, high-stress decision-making, and long-term fulfillment in conversation with 20VC host Harry Stebbings.
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“Happiness, you normally, I don't know, in my experience, I don't often have happiness in the moment. I have happiness in hindsight. When I feel like we have achieved something of great purpose, at the end of my life, I will reflect back and determine that I was happy, although along the way, it may not have felt that way all the time, because to achieve purpose is often to put yourself in positions of stress, making very difficult decisions, acting with a lot of urgency, making a lot of choices. In your life. But that's what causes accomplishment, which leads to fulfillment, which ultimately I think is happiness.”
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