Andrew Matthews, the World’s Top Published Author On Happiness Says, “Follow Your Passion To Be Happy”

Passion precedes happinessAndrew Matthews is one of the world’s most widely read self-help authors particularly on the topic of happiness. He sold 7 MILLION copies in 42 LANGUAGES of his happiness books and it all started with him being very unhappy.Andrew says “ I started searching for the reason other people around me were happyand I was shocked to find out thatthey had more challenges than I did, this is when I realized happiness is something you give to your self”His pursuit for happiness started with rejection! The conventional world viewed him as unqualified to talk about happiness since he was neither a scientist nor a researched, however he pursued his passion for drawing & writing till he became the world’s top author & speaker on the topic of happiness.So go ahead and click here if you want to find out how by honoring your passion will become happier and more successful; and don’t forget to share it around and spread the passion.Live PassionatelyMoustafa HamwiPassionpreneur & Chief Energy OfficerAward Winning AuthorAKA The Passion Guy

Transcript

Moustafa: Hello everyone and welcome back to Passion Sundays, the best way to end the week and start another.Our guest today is the world’s most published author on the topic of happiness. He sold over 7 million books, 40 titles. No one better to talk about happiness than Andrew Matthews.Thank you very much for being with us today.Andrew: Thank you.Moustafa: Umm umm I’m very excited! This is one probably gonna be my favorite episodes because passion and happiness. Before we get into the passion versus happiness. What is passion mean to you?Andrew: I think passion is, is just an excitement that, that you just, you have to do something because it’s in you and you love it and you can’t resist it.Moustafa: Beautiful. And where does passion come from then?Andrew: Ummm I, I guess each one of us has different way of seeing the world and, and based on how we see it and what we value and what we found exciting then we found our direction.Moustafa: Okay. Beautiful! So where did you find the passion for the topic of happiness, I mean, to go on multi-million selling books and 40 titles plus...Andrew: You know when I was 25 I started asking myself why some of my friends are happier than me? And what is their secret? And the thing that really shocked me was…that I discovered that a lot of the happiest people I know have bigger problems than me. And that makes no sense! How could that be? That, that people who have gone broke, or people that have come through cancer, that people who had love, who have lost loved ones way too early, seem to find more joy and more direction in their lives than almost anybody else. And ultimately, you have to come to the conclusion that it is not about what happened to you but it’s how you think about what happens to you and so I came to understand that happiness is much more of a decision than I grew up believing. And so I supposed the starting point for my first book “Being Happy” was, that happiness is not an accident, but it is something that we consciously choose.Moustafa: I love it! And I’m sure the journey of starting to write about happiness and especially so many years ago, I mean, happiness now is a, is a big thing…Andrew: Uhoh.Moustafa: But it but it wasn’t probably a big of a pursuit as before…Andrew: No.Moustafa: And your journey would not been easy for you to be a specialized speaker and an author on the topic of happiness.Andrew: Well particularly because I’m not a psychologist. My training is, is in classical art. I was, I was originally a, a law student, I didn’t like law, I didn’t find it, ah, filled my passion. Umm but I always love drawing and painting. And so I, I studied and I used to do portraits for a living. I used to do cartoons and umm, that really doesn’t set you up with the credibility to write best-selling books so to speak to corporate. But, umm I felt that my advantage was that I was not a psychologist. And that I could perhaps, come from a, a simple point of view and come from a point of view where I could illustrate my simple messages and perhaps reach people that wouldn’t normally read a self-help book. So…that turned out I think to be my advantage.Moustafa: Amazing! So by just pursuing something you were passionate about, although you are not fully equipped for what was required, your passion made it possible in a way.Andrew: Entirely so! And I, I think that’s a, a key observation and sometimes we might think, “Well, am I the person to do this? Do I have the qualifications? Or should I look a bit more like the other people that seem to remain successful in this field?” I saw that it’s, it’s that if, if you love something enough and, and if you are excited enough about it, then you don’t have to push yourself because you actually, you ride on the, on the joy of it and so it, it doesn’t become some kind of a brutal marathon. It just becomes a journey whereby perhaps you look back 30 years later and you say, “Well often I didn’t know where I was going, but because I loved doing it that was enough.”Moustafa: I like the ride on the joy of it.Andrew: Yeah.Moustafa: That’s beautiful! That being said, life hits you hard in a lot of times and I’m sure you told us what worked but I’m also interested in what did not work and how did you find passion. That would have been a lot of push back about you being an artist, and not being a, a “clinically qualified” to talk about the topic, and not psychologist, and I’m sure a lot of times you were turned down more than once to get speaking gigs…Andrew: Umm.Moustafa: To get writing gigs…Andrew: Umm.Moustafa: How do you find passion when going was tough?Andrew: Well I, I guess that the first step was, my brother had written a book and he’d been rejected by 50 publishers. So my first, my first book was actually a children’s book it wasn’t, it wasn’t about “Being Happy” and I wanted to see if I could beat his record. So I sent my manuscript to 60 publishers and you know how many rejections I got?Moustafa: Sixty?Andrew: Sixty one!Moustafa: (Laughs)Andrew: Somebody write to me twice (laughs).Moustafa: Okay (laughs).Andrew: Umm and ah, then, so I write and so, okay maybe I’m not good enough because I love writing and I love drawing and so I thought maybe, maybe the kids book is not what I’m good at, so I write the book about “Being Happy” and I think I was only rejected by about 17 publishers which didn’t seem like very many (laughs). And, and, and eventually, I was picked up by a Singaporean ah publisher who I think had published the, I think the Fun Book of Vanuatu and something else. But, but it was a husband and wife team and the wife of the team, Norma, she was in women’s magazines, and she had an eye for what people liked. She said that this, this book about “Being Happy” is gonna sell a million copies and I thought “Wow I’d be happy with a thousand!” but turned out she was right.Moustafa: Yeah, amazing…amazing! I love it! So and at that time, how did you kind of, you know, sixty, sixty one out of 60 rejections is a bit too much for somebody’s ego, it’s over the top.Andrew: Yeah.Moustafa: Why didn’t you quit?Andrew: Ah, umm well it’s comes back to this passion thing of yours, that, that if you like doing it, say people often say to be now, “Should I write a book?” And I say, yes (laughs), write a book, because if you want to write a book, it’s not about whether it even gets published. Because when you write that book, if you care about it, and you get to define what is important for you, or you get to tell a story that you think is valuable, or you get to, umm get a clear idea of how you see the world, that’s what’s important. Whether anybody buys that book is second-grade.Moustafa: Amazing! So here’s my interesting question to you…Andrew: Yeah.Moustafa: Passion versus happiness, what’s the difference, and which one feeds the other?Andrew: Ah I’m thinking now, I might change my mind but I go away, but I’m thinking that probably passion precedes happiness, that if, if you, if you really ah, feel driven and drawn to do something, and then as you, have the, as you, as you pursue that, and as you have the opportunity to do it then the happiness will flow from that. I mean if, if music fills your soul, and then you followed that course then, then as creating the music which comes from your passion, umm, I mean, that, that’s gonna lead to more happiness.Moustafa: I love it. No better to, way to conclude than passion feeds happiness and happiness feeds passion and then it’s an ongoing journey.Andrew: Um.Moustafa: Andrew, thank you very much for being with us today and I’m sure everybody enjoy this episode as much as I did.Andrew: Thank you!Moustafa: Thank you very much.Moustafa and Anndrew: Passion!Moustafa: What do you think? I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did and I would love to know your opinions so do write your comments on the blog below and if you found it useful, share it with your friends or on social media. And if you’d like more tools, tips, techniques and exclusive interviews that I only share on my website, go to Moustafa.com. And until next episode, live passionately!