While researching and writing, he gradually fine-tuned his theory of the different types of happiness, and he found one that makes the most sense to him, personally. From a trainer of high school science teachers in Montana to the owner of a gelato shop in Toronto, readers get a diverse set of answers to what Mittal calls “life’s big questions” about work, money, purpose-and happiness. Each interviewee was asked the same questions their responses are all unique. The project culminated in “50 Faces of Happy” (Open Mentis), a book composed of Mittal’s best interviews and portraits. With their permission, he recorded their conversations and took their photos.
Across the continent, in cities big and small and in places like town squares and rest stops, Mittal found a surprising number of strangers willing to share their time and stories. He tried to encourage good conversation, politely approaching potential subjects in public spaces and introducing himself as a visiting social scientist. “I thought, what if I meet strangers and instead talk ‘big talk’, go beyond the superficial?” Mittal explains. The work (completed pre-COVID-19) required his skills as a researcher, but it also meant learning to turn the notion of “small talk” on its head. “I wanted to capture how people make sense of their lives, so to speak,” he says.
He traveled to 30 states and Canada to talk with more than 500 strangers about the things and beliefs that bring them joy.
#Happy thoughts drivers
To answer that question, Mittal (BUS ’82G) decided to embark on a two-year project zeroing in on the root drivers of happiness. But as he grew older, he found that his inquiries into value and meaning-making were shifting from the business realm to the metaphysical: What, he kept wondering, really makes people happy? As a professor of marketing and an expert in consumer behavior at Northern Kentucky University, he’s long been fascinated by the ways people find importance and meaning in their connections to specific brands or products. The concept came to Banwari Mittal as his ideas often do: while he was on one of his regular, solitary walks around his Greater Cincinnati neighborhood.
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