JORGE RODRIGUES SIMAO

Although we may not realize it at the time, a chief event in our lives is the day in which we first encounter one of our best friends. If by chance you don't precisely know why you need great friends, let's get you started: After you work either hard or smart to be successful in life, it's important to enjoy your success. Celebrations by yourself, you may have noticed, aren't much fun they actually tend to be on the quiet side. Even if you have a dog or cat, sharing good news with it isn't quite the same as sharing good news with a great friend.

In modem life, as in Greek tragedies, should we be astonished that many successful people aren't happy people? In case you haven't noticed, conventional success is much easier to attain than happiness. There are hundreds of thousands of neurotics who are successful - but there are no happy ones! So how do you create happiness if you are successful and not happy? First, don't desperately pursue happiness. Happiness, it seems, doesn't like people who are desperate for it.

"People report being happier when they are with friends than when they're with a spouse or child," according to research cited in a cover story in Psychology Today magazine. This, indeed, is something to ponder seriously. To repeat, people actually experience greater joy while spending time with their  friends than while spending time with their children or their mates. This should give you an idea of the value of friendship. Interestingly, friendship is one of the most researched subjects on the Internet.

In his work Nicomachean Ethics written in 350 RC. Greek philosopher Aristotle claimed that happiness is the only thing that humans desire for its own sake. People seek riches, not for the sake of being rich, but to be happy. Likewise, individuals desire fame, not for the sake of being famous, but because they believe fame will bring them happiness. According to Aristotle, the highest good for us is happiness, and that is why we desire and seek it. As an experience and a subject, happiness has been pursued and commented on extensively since the dawn of history. This reflects the universal importance that humans have placed, and still place, on happiness.