For years, my family doesn't understand what's "wrong" with me, why I left my bright future behind and went on a search, and why we share very different perspectives on life. So I decided to put together a document that explains my journey and my learnings with easy to understand graphics and logic flows. By sharing it, I hope to help you understand me as a friend, and maybe add some stimulation to your own search. (not sure why the stickman is missing one leg on slideshare...)

1. What are you doing
Michael?
a presentation about what’s wrong with him

2. help you understand why Michael is so
irresponsible, immature, defensive, stubborn…
The goal of this document
*the goal is not to make you agree with me

3. this has lots to do with everything
since young, Dad has always taught me to
ask WHY
Early influence - ask WHY

4. The Good Life Path
generally, a good life looks this:
Good
College
Good
Grades
Good
Job
Good
Girlfriend
Good
2nd Job
Good
Wife
Good
1st House
Good
Kids
Good
2nd House
Help Your Kids
Repeat This Cycle
The
Good Life

5. Me & The Good Life
Good
College
Good
Grades
Good
Job
Good
Girlfriend
Good
2nd Job
Good
Wife
Good
1st House
Good
Kids
Good
2nd House
Help Your Kids
Repeat This Cycle
like everyone else, with the help of our family, I worked really hard up until here
The
Good Life
the successful
Michael

6. The WHY
Good
College
Good
Grades
Good
Job
Good
Girlfriend
Good
2nd Job
Good
Wife
Good
1st House
Good
Kids
Good
2nd House
Help Your Kids
Repeat This Cycle
since The Good Life seems so normal and time is so precious in this big race,
I never stopped to think about WHY we are doing all these
The
Good Life
?

7. Is it about happiness?
an obvious guess that came to mind was happiness
we only live once, we might as well live a
happy life
right?
*happy here doesn’t mean pleasure or temporary enjoyment

8. The Good Life = effective?
then I looked at myself and everyone around me, are we happy?
The Good Life seemed to be very effective for some things, but not all
*the Maslow’s Human Needs pyramid

9. The Good Life Rollercoasters
in The Good Life, we work really hard to achieve our future goals and expect that once we
reach that goal, our life will be dramatically happier, but it’s not true,
we focus on the future goals so much that this becomes our life …
happiness level
2 weeks of Woohoo!
I got into
UC Berkeley
4 years of stressing
to achieve
the Good 1st Job
3 years of stressing
to achieve
the Good College

10. The Good Life ≠ effective
The Good Life sure made us more successful and well-off, but happier?
in the past 30 years, our stress level has also increased by nearly 30%,
and Americans diagnosed with depression is also increasing by 20% a year, why?

11. Could we be happier?
I like to challenge the possibility of doing something better,
for me, there must be a way to live a
happier life
so I decided to find out how

12. The Great Risk
but I worked so hard to position myself well in The Good Life path, if I go on
a search now, there’s an obvious risk of
being off track
The Good Life
a happier life?
risk
risk
risk
risk
risk

13. The Happiness Journey
but if I can use 1-2 years to make rest of my 60 years
happier, it’s a good bet, so I went ahead
during this journey I did these to try to find the formula of happiness:
reading, researching, trials and errors
and most importantly…

14. Traveling
use my own eyes to witness how other cultures find their happiness

15. The Happiness Formula
after all, I believe the happiness formula looks something like this:
- family
- friends
- communityAchievement
20%
Attitude
30% Health
20%
Relationships
30%
- physical
- mental
- gratitude
- positivity
- confidence
- compassion
- passions
- do what you
are good at
- be valued

16. Pursue happiness
and here are some of the things I’ve already started to do
- swimming daily
- big change in diet
- change in lifestyle
- meditation
- allocate more
time and energy
to important
people in my life
- (this document is an
example of me trying)
- meditation
- mindfullness
- pursue wisdom
- family
- friends
- communityAchievement
20%
Attitude
30% Health
20%
Relationships
30%
- physical
- mental
- gratitude
- positivity
- confidence
- compassion
- passions
- do what you
are good at
- be valued
?

17. But is life just about happiness?
happiness is great, and with handwork, we can sure achieve a happier life,
but then I asked myself again,
is life just about being happy?
or is there something else?

18. How about other people?
one of the most important thing that I learned during my travels is that
we live in a bubble,
we worry about silly things and The Good Life,
while we have no idea how rest of the world is suffering

19. But what can you do?
we think we are here
our bubble tells us we are not in the position to care about others
because we need to help ourselves first, but this is the reality…
majority of the world
wealth, power, quality
of life, and etc..

20. But what can you do?
we think we are here
we are actually here
majority of the world
our bubble tells us we are not in the position to care about others
because we need to help ourselves first, but this is the reality…
wealth, power, quality
of life, and etc..

21. But what can you do?
we think we are here
we are actually here
we think we need to be here to be
secure and then we can help others
majority of the world
our bubble tells us we are not in the position to care about others
because we need to help ourselves first, but this is the reality…
wealth, power, quality
of life, and etc..

22. So what’s wrong?
if everyone thinks like this, then the world will only continue to suffer,
how am I going to be happy knowing that
I’m not doing anything about it?
we think we need to be here to be
secure and THEN we can do something
majority of the world
???
wealth, power, quality
of life, and etc..

23. Life with a purpose?
I don’t want to live a life worrying about my own silly problems everyday,
I want to wake up feeling thrilled that…
today, I’m doing something great for others

24. What do you mean?
It means I want to…
solve real problems, make real impacts,
which is NOT solving problems like these…
- help ticket brokers sell over-priced tickets
- help rich students do better than poor students who can’t afford tutors
- help people eat more hot dogs
- help Google Offers sell more stuff that people don’t need
(my past work)

25. In summary…
this is how I want my life to look like
Happiness Purpose
Next Page

26. Purpose -> Happiness
and the two actually work very well together
Achievement
20%
Attitude
30% Health
20%
Relationships
30%
- passions
- do what you
are good at
- be valued
Purpose

27. Good story, but what now?
I need a strong foundation to make this vision come true
Happiness Purpose
Foundation

28. The Foundation
I need two things, financial security and wisdom
WisdomFinancial Security
Happiness
Purpose
I don’t need lots of money to be
happy, but I do need money to
sustain my or my future family’s
lifestyle to feel secure
How can I solve other people’s
problems while I don’t have
enough to feel comfortable or
secure?
Wisdom will help me live a
happier life by making me a
more positive, appreciative,
and compassionate person
Wisdom will give me the clarity
and mental capacity I need to
solve big problems, especially
during difficult times

29. The Projection
by achieving financial security and wisdom, I hope to follow this projection:
a happy and purposeful life
Financial Security
Wisdom
Happiness
Purpose
Time

30. The Life
and live a life like this
happiness level
achieving
something
meaningful to
others and myself
- appreciate small things in life,
- spend quality time with
people I love
- being healthy
- work hard for a purpose