Interviewer: Good afternoon, I am here with Jayme Illien. The founder, the very founder of international happiness day on the 20 of March. So I couldnt be more honored to have met the actual founder of the day. Can you please share with us, what made you found this day? How did you convince the United Nations to institute this day?

Jayme Illien: “Sure. Hello everyone. So the inspiration for the day came from my own personal background and experience working with children, orphaned and abandoned children, to bring them happiness, by finding them permanent families actually. I myself was an orphan from the streets, rescued and grew up in an orphanage..

Interviewer: “oh wow. Thats a story”

Jayme Illien. yes yes and thats where the inspiration came from because i felt that, first of all, that happiness, is a human right for all human beings, especially children in orphanages, my brothers and sisters. But I also felt that the happiness movement and the gross national happiness movement which Bhutan is leading, has the potential to solve many problems in many countries, and i felt that the international day of happiness would continue the awareness around this movement. So thats why I did it

Interviewer: “Excellent. Wow. So it started actually from creating happiness for children rather than from a company because you actually have a background also within companies.
Jayme Illien. “Thats right. Thats right”

Interviewer: “So what was the trick then, how did you convince the United Nations? Was it more on the financial side or was it more on the humanitarian side?”

Jayme Illien. “It was on the humanitarian side, without a doubt. In fact, I would say that the reason why popular and something that was possible is because of the leadership of Bhutan. They had already pushed happiness movement inside the United Nations, and there was already a lot of popularity behind it so the idea for an international day of happiness just made sense to everyone. So I was very lucky. We were all lucky to have this initiative be a success.”

Interviewer: “Its fantastic to hear also from this side, Bhutan is really setting up the stage, the role model, for all of us to have happiness as a goal and as a metric as well. And what about the World Happiness Summit. How did that come up with Luis, and what do you think we can achieve with such a summit?”

Jayme Illien: “Yeah absolutely, well said. So the World Happiness Summit was really really exciting for me. This is the first one as you know, and the importance of this is that it brings the community, the happiness commjunity, around the world together. And when you are trying to promote an idea that has the potential to improve lives like happiness does, and to improve companies, schools, education, everything, all of life, and countries., you know, a summit is so important. Bringing everyone together in a conference, bringing everyone together to work together for this very important cause, thats why the summit matters and why its important.”

Interviewer: “and what was your key learning out of those few days? Any person that you met especially that you think can drive the change?”

Jayme Illien: “ The most important thing that I learned fromt his experience is how engaged, and excited, and passionate the happiness community is. The happiness community is something that really is..its..its just amazing isnt it you know…

Interviewer: “Yeah, i really felt the same

Jayme Illien: “Everyone feels it. They feel the love and energy in the world, and around each other. Theres a vibration. You can feel it. And so you know, i was just..my lesson, what i learned, is just I was re invigorated with the positive energy, and excitement, and passion for this because I know that this is going in the right direction, and it has the potential to improve the lives of so many people around the world. Thats what I love about it”

Interviewer: “Yeah, fantastic. We chose happiness. We strive for happiness. And were gonna be here again next year because this is going to become a movement which is going to repeat yearly, and were gonna have a world happiness summit every year so that all the people, all the activists, all the thought leaders in the sector can come together, and discuss happiness, and the latest status on happiness.”

Jayme Illien: Absolutely”

Interviewer: “Thank you so much.
Jayme Illien: Thank you. Thank you. ”
Interviewer: “Bye”