After gathering life wisdom for 32 years, this is my happiness formula.

Happiness is serving something that's bigger than you and sharing the experience with loved ones.

For some, the big thing is family. For some it's a profession. For some it's an idea or community.

Either way, at the end of a shitty day, if you feel peace because something you value is doing well and you have someone to share it with... that's happiness.

How to serve

To truly serve something you need to commit. Long-term. You need to give in your days, your months, your years. If you find something that's worth serving for a lifetime, even better.

What if you are wrong? What if you change? Is it a waste of time then?

No. Because being wrong, learning and adapting is part of life. Being brave and taking a stand is the way. It's either this, or nihilism.

How to find something to serve

To find something worthy of commitment, you need to have values.

You form values by discovering, experiencing and understanding the world. You need samples. You need to experiment. You need to shoot and miss.

Try various professions. Move to different places. Meet new people. Establish various relationships. Commit to ideas. Be wrong. Recalibrate your brain. Watch, experience and learn.

To make big commitments you need experience and confidence. Otherwise you heavily rely on luck.

Serve something that serves you back

Try finding something that aligns with your values but also supports you as an individual as well.

Marriage can be a wonderful spiritual experience, but it can be practical too. A profession that helps your community is great, but if it pays well, even better.

Screw identity, values are the goal

Serving your values is the goal. Actions and commitment are the tools. Identity is the merely the by-product.

Chasing identity leads you off-track. It might serve as motivation on the short run, but on the long run it carries the danger of losing focus of your whats (actions) and more importantly your whys (values) which are core.

Oh, me?

The big thing for me - just like for many others - is family.

Nothing can drag me down when I see my beautiful son laughing with joy in his eyes. If my family is well and healthy all my problems fade away.

That's one of reasons why I committed myself to indie hacking too.

Firstly, I enjoy it, but that doesn't matter, because I enjoy a lot of things. What really highlights indie hacking is the potential to make a good living with satisfying freedom - which aligns with my values for my family.

Money, money, money, must be funny

Before making my own family, money didn't matter that much. I did things that were fun, but didn't really pay well, like stand-up comedy. I don't regret it, because if I would've not tried it, I might be wondering today: "what if?" (plus, at least I wrote a book about it).

This way I know that getting applauded for telling dick jokes is extremely funny, but to make it financially rewarding I would have to make sacrafices I am not willing to make. Having this knowledge as a real-world experience (not just knowing) is something that helps me value financially rewarding projects even better.

In summary

• To reduce luck factor in your decisions, you need samples
• Experiment: try different places, hobbies, professions, partners
• Be analytical and form values
• Choose something for long-term that serves you back
• Commit with your actions
• Ignore who you are, focus on what you do and why
• Find people that share your values and commit together