Episode 12
Happiness at Work: The Five Things You Need To Feel Happy in Your Job - Richard Clarke, the Entrepreneur with one KPI
Guest: Richard Clarke — keynote speaker, consultant and former tech company founder
Episode Description
Richard Clarke spent four years teaching water skiing in Turkey, sailing in the Caribbean, traveling through Australia and Asia — all in pursuit of a single question: what actually makes me happy? When the answer turned out to be making other people happy, he came home, became a teacher, moved to Gran Canaria, and in 2014 became founder of a tech company with an unusual KPI. Not revenue. Not growth. Team happiness.
For the next ten years he experimented as an entrepreneur on his own team, testing everything from meeting design to what food to serve at breakfast, to no-meeting Fridays, to flexible working, to turning down clients who weren’t a good fit for the culture. When he sent out an engagement survey two years in and 50% of his team said they wanted to leave, it taught him something important: you can’t replace good management with free stuff.
Last year, Richard sold the company. He describes handing it over as feeling like putting his daughter on a plane to Peru — the same loss of something he’d built and loved that he couldn’t control anymore.
In this conversation, Richard talks about the five things every workplace needs to make people genuinely happy — safety, community, autonomy, learning and purpose — and why they aren’t just workplace needs. He talks about job crafting, about the difference between British and Spanish working culture, about what Gen Z are getting right that previous generations were too scared to ask for, and about what Richard would tell you to do if you’re not happy at work right now.
Timestamps
02:37 Torque Ten — Quickfire Questions with Richard
03:44 What Led Him to Put Happiness at the Core of His Business
03:58 The Careers Advisor Who Changed Everything — Just Do Something That Makes You Happy
06:01 The Morning on the Beach in Thailand When He Knew It Was Over
08:03 2014: Founding a Tech Company with Happiness as the KPI
08:23 Nobody Believed Him — The Theory Nobody Would Fund
09:18 The Engagement Survey Two Years In — 50% Wanted to Leave
10:44 What He Did Wrong
12:17 What He Did Right
15:20 Spanish vs British Working Culture
17:00 Was He Happy While Running a Happiness Company?
18:28 Why He Sold
20:31 How the Team Reacted
22:14 Setting Red Lines Before the Sale
25:18 How He Dealt with the Loss — Talking to People
26:14 The One Thing Happiness Couldn’t Fix
28:12 Happiness as KPI Alongside Profit, Not Instead Of
30:00 Did Men and Women Need Different Things?
30:37 The Five Things — Safety, Community, Autonomy, Learning, Purpose
31:14 Age as the Bigger Differentiator — Young Parents Needed Flexibility
31:51 What Individuals Can Do for Themselves — The 50 Words Exercise
33:04 Job Crafting — Adapting Your Role Around Your Needs
35:04 What Schools in Africa Taught Him About Purpose
37:10 What Richard Would Tell You If You’re Not Happy at Work
38:30 What Good Management Actually Looks Like
40:10 Autonomy — Trust People or Lose Them
41:27 Gen Z — Not Different, Just Braver at Asking
42:44 What a Good Day Looks Like for Richard
43:05 Dom’s Closing Reflection
You can find Richard on LinkedIn at
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