The increasing pressures of today’s money-driven world can often cause people to gravitate towards material items. However, true personal happiness is rarely achieved through professional endeavors or wealth. Although these things may be nice extras, I agree that healthy relationships with family, friends and colleagues are the true keys to personal happiness. This will be shown by analyzing the often-lonely lives of many wealthy celebrities as well as the advice of older people who speak from experience.
Firstly, the lives of wealthy celebrities often illustrate that money cannot buy happiness. For example, many tremendously wealthy pop icons, such as Robbie Williams and Kirsten Dunst, suffer from debilitating depression often linked to extraordinary lifestyles that make it difficult to maintain friendships. As such instances show, money cannot be labelled an infallible precursor to happiness. The manner in which it often isolates people suggests that human interaction in the form of family and friendships is much more likely than money to be at the foundation of lasting happiness in life.
The advice from many older people regularly reiterates this. For example, all four of my grandparents claim their relationships with family and friends are the experiences that brought them the greatest happiness in their lives. As this is a common viewpoint among the aged of all countries and cultures, and because the aged simply have more experience with life, such an opinion needs to be given precedence when discussing this topic. Thus, human relationships are much more likely to be precursors to personal happiness than money or professional pursuits.
As seen above, professional success and wealth cannot buy true happiness, and this is a realization that all too often comes in old age. This essay has shown that the health of relationships with family, friends and colleagues is the genuine catalyst to lasting happiness. Thus, keeping in touch with people is much more than just a courtesy.