I have worked with people who made the kind of money in a year that it would take me a decade to realize. These people aren’t trust-fund babies or those who married well; they became wealthy through their careers. Their buying power ranks them at the top with those few whose capacities to get loans and an almost endless supply of credit suggests complete life fulfillment. When it comes to problems that money solves, they buy solutions. There is little they can’t have in this world.

Yet the career they chose to make that money leaves them feeling empty inside. It’s hard to enjoy a giant house in a fabulous neighborhood or a sports car that leaves others jealous or the best food prepared by a personal chef when you’re always miserable while earning the money to afford it all.

Money vs. Happiness

People need money for essentials, especially if they’re supporting a family. But in working with the mega-rich, I can recognize that moment when the upward trajectory of their careers passes the genuine need for money, and they trade fulfillment to keep their hefty paycheck.

Here’s the ironic thing: people who continue to work at a job they no longer enjoy seldom recognize that if money doesn’t buy happiness, more money isn’t going to buy it either.

A Harvard Business School professor conducted a study of 2,000 unfulfilled millionaires who were asked how much more money it would take for them to be happy. Almost all of them said they needed 2 to 3 times more than they already made. In other words, somebody with $2 million would need $6 million, and a person with $6 million would need $18 million to be happy.

What would happen if they reached that 2 to 3 times more? Would they be happier? Or would they find themselves where they are now, thinking if they could increase their pay again, they would be happier than before? In this case, happiness sounds like it’s the carrot the rabbit chases but never catches.

A study by the National Academy of Sciences found that money made over a certain annual amount doesn’t bring more happiness. Can you guess that annual salary cap: $250 thousand; $500 thousand? Nope. It’s $75 thousand, basically the yearly earnings of today’s middle- to upper-middle class. Money made beyond that point neither equaled more job satisfaction nor correlated with happiness.

As business author Jim Blasingame says, “If you can’t be happy without money and material stuff, you’re not likely to be happy with it.”

Happiness at Work

If it’s not money that makes people happier at work, what’s the secret? The answer is three-fold.

1. Autonomy: the ability to make your own choices be it what you are doing, when you are doing it or who you’re doing it with.

2. Mastery: getting tasked with assignments outside of your current skill level, forcing you to be challenged and learn as part of the process.

3. Purpose: a tangible reason for working on something that is of personal importance or purpose to you.

If you’re unhappy at your job, you probably feel like you’re in a career where none of the above options exist. And you’re probably right. Statistics show the vast majority of people are unhappy at work, and those who report happiness say that their jobs offer all of the options above. 

Take A Leap of Faith

Do you feel that the only way you’re going to be happy is to leave your job? If you haven’t taken that chance because you’re not sure what steps to take to get the job you want, I hope you’ll contact me. I’d love to help you the way I’ve helped so many others. It’s great that you’ve got a high-paying job, but why trade your happiness for it? You’ll never find someone on their deathbed who says, “I just wish I had made more money.”

Your soul is not for sale, and nurturing it will lead you to more happiness than you will ever find by living for a paycheck.

I’d like to sit down with you where we put the finances of your current job to the side and figure out what you'd rather be doing with your professional life. Since people spend nearly a third of their lives at work, let's find a way to make that third count for you.