Happier创始人娜塔莉•高根

    Nataly Kogan understands the pursuit of happiness—in her younger years, she lived for it. As a Jewish refugee from Soviet Russia, Kogan escaped her native country at the age of 13 with a handful of suitcases and $600 in cash for her entire family of four. Jumping between refugee camps across Europe, Kogan finally made it to the United States where her pursuit of happiness really took off. She graduated top of her class from Wesleyan University. She worked at McKinsey & Company, then at Microsoft. She got married and had a daughter. On paper, Kogan had achieved the American Dream. But still, she wasn't happy.

    Kogan is the CEO and Chief Happiness Officer of startup Happier. She not only finds herself in better spirits, but spends her days trying to pass the feeling along to others as well. The secret, she says, is understanding that you can't actually be happy, but you can always be happier. That's the message conveyed with her new app, Happier, which she describes as an "emotional bookshelf in your pocket." Users upload anything that makes them happy, from posts chronicling their small daily success stories ("I got a great parking spot!") to photos of their favorite foods or places. Anytime you need a pick-me-up, simply open your Happier app and enjoy all of the happy moments posted by your friends.

    Since its launch in February, users have shared over one million happy moments, says Kogan. The app is only the first step along the way, however, and Kogan hopes to build the business into a media company and lifestyle brand, similar to Oprah or Martha Stewart, she says. In addition to "Happier TV" and "Happier Videos," Kogan envisions licensing Happier products, like clothes, cars, or even a Happier Airline. With a $2.4 million seed round under her belt from investors like Venrock and Resolute.vc, Kogan's march toward making the world a happier place is well underway. "Life is made of moments," she says. "Choose to create and collect the happy ones."

    Fortune interviewed Kogan about the app, the American Dream, and how happiness is changing lives around the world.

    Fortune: Many people use mainstream social media sites like Facebook or Twitter to post things that are negative or even hurtful, but you think Happier is different? Why?

    Kogan: There is a tremendous amount of research that shows that Facebook makes people miserable. Dr. Nicholas Christakis (Harvard) is a formal advisor to Happier, and he's looked into a lot of research of social media making people miserable and I think it's one of our strongest selling points. I totally get why Facebook makes people miserable. It's a stage now where we are all creating these versions of ourselves that are awesome—we have great vacations, look great, have awesome friends. And then what people do is compare their real life to this very braggy, curated life that your friends are posting on Facebook.

    In Happier, the expectation is everything is positive, so you don't need to show off. A happy moment is a different type of social content, it's smaller, it's more personal. It doesn't need a cool photo and it doesn't need to be impressive. It can be as tiny as "I just got a great parking spot!" or "My kid gave me a hug after work." You don't need to feel bad when you're posting positive things, nor do you need to feel like you need to make a big deal out of it like you would on Facebook.

    娜塔莉•高根懂得追求快乐——在更年轻的时候，她为快乐而生。高根一家是前苏联的犹太难民，她13岁那年，一家四口拎着几个手提箱，揣着600美元现金逃离了前苏联。她转辗于欧洲的各大难民营，最后终于到了美国，在这里她对幸福的追求才真正有了起色。她以班级第一的成绩毕业于卫斯里大学（Wesleyan University）；曾供职于麦肯锡（McKinsey & Company）和微软（Microsoft）；婚后育有一女。按理说，高根已经实现了美国梦，但她仍不快乐。

    如今，高根是新创公司Happier的首席快乐官（Chief Happiness Officer）。她不仅改善了自己的情绪，更努力把这种积极的情绪传递给别人。她说，快乐的秘诀在于真正懂得快乐是没有终点的，但你永远都能变得更快乐。这就是她的新应用程序Happier所传达的信息，高根称其为一个“口袋里的情感书架”。用户可以上传一切能让自己开心的东西，从记录日常生活中点滴成功的帖子（“我拿了个特棒的停车位！”）到最喜爱的食物或地方的照片。任何时候需要高兴起来的时候，只要打开更快乐应用程序就可以享受朋友们上传的所有快乐时刻。

    高根说，自从二月份发布这个程序以来，用户们分享的快乐时刻已经超过了一百万个。但这个应用程序还只是万里长征的第一步。高根说，她想把快乐事业打造成一个媒体公司和生活方式的品牌，类似奥普拉或玛莎•斯图尔特所做的事业。除了Happier电视和Happier视频，高根还设想针对其他Happier产品的许可经营，如服装、汽车甚至一家Happier航空公司。受到风投公司Venrock和Resolute.vc等投资者的青睐，高根“腰缠”240万美元的本钱，正沿着使世界更快乐的方向行进。“生活是无数瞬间的累积，”她说。“我们选择创造、收集每一个快乐的瞬间。”

    《财富》杂志（Fortune）对高根进行了采访，话题涵盖了她的应用程序、美国梦以及快乐怎样改变生活。

    《财富》：许多人用Facebook或Twitter等主流社交媒体来发一些负面甚至是有危害的信息，但你却认为Happier不一样？为什么？

    高根：大量研究表明，Facebook使人变得痛苦。Happier的正式顾问——哈佛大学（Harvard）的尼古拉斯•克里斯塔吉斯博士研究了许多调查，显示社交媒体增加了人们的痛苦，所以我认为这是我们最大的卖点。我完全理解为什么Facebook让人觉得痛苦。目前这个阶段，我们都从不同方面创造着一个了不起的自己——我们的假期美妙惬意、生活春风得意、朋友倍儿棒。然后人们会把自己的真实生活和朋友们在Facebook上极度夸大、刻意包装的生活相对比。

    而在Happier，出发点是一切都是正面的，所以你无需炫耀。快乐时刻是另一类社交内容，它更小更私人化。它不需要一张很酷的照片，也不需要吸引眼球。它可以是像“我刚拿了个很棒的停车位！”或是“下班回家后孩子给了我一个拥抱。”这样的小事。发表积极信息的时候，人们用不着沮丧，也不用觉得要像在Facebook上一样，非要弄出点什么动静来。

    Fortune: Happiness has many side effects like higher productivity and better long-term health. What is a side effect of happiness that you found surprising?

    Kogan: Kids learn better when they're more positive. There was a study that they ran, I believe this was in London, and they took second graders and one second grade class just carried on as they usually do, but the other class started every single day by sitting in a circle and sharing one or two things that they were happy about from the [day before]. The class that did this improved their grades, aggression and bullying were lower, teacher satisfaction went up, and their test results went up. This idea that if people are more positive, we can learn better, that kids can do better in school, that employees can do better—to me that's very powerful.

    Fortune: Do you spent the most of your life in the United States chasing the "American Dream." Does it still exist in the same form today and does it need to be changed?

    Kogan: It's interesting, someone came up to me after my TEDx Talk and said to me, "this is really incredible and inspirational, but aren't you still in a way chasing the 'big happy?'" And I guess that's the whole point. It doesn't mean that we stop creating. It doesn't mean that you don't have goals or don't create new things or learn new things. But it does mean that you don't hang your happiness on that. I don't need to wait to be happy until I build a billion dollar company. The point is that every day, even if they're really hard, have some happy moments in them.

    《财富》：快乐有许多其他作用，比如更高的生产力和更长久的健康。这些作用中，哪一个是最让你惊讶的？

    高根：孩子们在积极的时候学得更好。曾经有一项研究，我记得是在伦敦进行的，实验对象是二年级的孩子们。一个班和往常一样上课学习，另一个班的学生在每天上课前围成一圈坐在一起，分享一两件昨天的开心事。结果第二个班的孩子们成绩提高了，学生之间进攻性和恃强欺弱的现象减少了，而且老师的满意度上升，测试成绩也改善了。如果人们更积极，我们会学得更好，孩子们在学校做得更棒，员工表现更出色，我觉得这个理念非常强大。

    《财富》：你在美国的大部分时间是不是在追寻“美国梦”？如今这个梦想还是一样的形式吗，需要做些调整吗？

    高根：说来挺有意思的。我在TEDx结束演讲后，有人过来跟我说，“真的非常不可思议而且鼓舞人心，但从某种意义上说，你追寻的不依然是‘大快乐’吗”？我想这就是关键：我并不是指我们不再创造快乐了，不是说你没有目标或不创造新东西、不学习新知识了，而是指我们的快乐不再依赖这些了。我不需要等到开了一家十亿美元的大公司后才快乐。关键是，我们的日常生活，即使艰辛坎坷，总有些许快乐时光。（财富中文网）

    译者：默默