The idea for the movement came to me in Dec 2012 when I realized that my decades of performing random kindness were the equivalent of giving a man a fish. Not a bad thing, but I could do better. Much better. A fish feeds the man for the day, but does not teach him how to fish so he can feed himself.

Rather that just expose people to a little happiness, I want to teach them how about the Happiness Advantage and how to incorporate it into their lives as a permanent feature. That's where the idea for this movement came from. My vision is to create a self-sustaining movement focused on teaching people how to benefit from the Happiness Advantage. And I want to realize this vision through random acts of kindness - one book, one person at time.

I'd been practicing random acts of kindness since the early 1990's when I was first introduced to the concept by a Catholic priest in New York City.For me, it first started with paying the toll for the car behind me on the highway and soon led to paying for a cup of coffee, a breakfast, a diner and all types of other positive random acts over the years. Random acts of kindness became a part of me; something people who knew me just expected me to do.

Then in 2011, a co-worker emailed me a link to Shawn Achor's 2010 presentation at the TED, and changed my life forever. The material completely blew me away because I'd benefited from what Shawn described as the Happiness Advantage all of my life without realizing it it had a name. I am that one "weird in the room" that Shawn talks about in his TED presentation. The coolest part about the video was not only did it gave my condition a label, but more importantly described a repeatable process I could use to teach others how to receive similar benefits. Needless to say I was out of my mind excited when I realized the tremendous gift my co-worker had just given me!

I teach at a local university in the evenings, and immediately began using the TED material as a warm up for my classes. The response I received from students has been nothing but less than phenomenal. I've visibly seen light bulbs come on for some students when they heard the material, and watched it completely change the lives of others for the better over the course of the past year.

I soon discovered the Happiness Advantage has universal applicability! After seeing measurable results from presenting the material in class, I became an evangelist overnight and would talk about it to anyone who would stand still long enough to hear my elevator pitch. Just ask my wife and kids...they've heard my shtick so many times now that it pervades their sleep. So far, I've managed to successfully incorporate it into my life coaching work, motivational speaking materials, teaching business and technology students, and even use it my day job conducting applied research in the technology sector.

The Happiness Advantage is the sole underlying contributing factor to my overall happiness and success in life! The cool part about it is that ANYONE can teach themselves how to gain the same advantage.