Today he is a bestselling author known for his work on the science of happiness.
Speaking at the Archer Hotel in Tysons Nov. 20, Arthur Brooks told the inaugural gathering of the Assembly of Catholic Professionals that he was searching for his own happiness in his 11th year as president of the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
“I talked to my spiritual director about it,” said Brooks, a parishioner of St. Thomas à Becket Church in Reston. “I didn’t get the answers that I thought I would. And so, I did what Catholics have done for more than a thousand years when they have a hard question they don’t know the answer to. I went for a long walk.”
Brooks quit his job at AEI in 2019 and walked the final eight days of the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain with his wife, Ester. “The belief is that actually, you don’t find the object of your intention,” he said. “You become so worn down that it finds you … because in a state of weakness, you can submit, you can surrender. You give up your future to God when you’re in the worst times of your life.”
When he entered the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Compostela on the last day, Brooks knew what he was destined to do. “I was called to my apostolate for the rest of my life starting at age 55,” he said. “That mission was to get as many souls to heaven as I possibly could.”
Then the phone rang. “It was Harvard University, and they said, ‘How about coming to teach this happiness thing at the Harvard Business School,’ ” said Brooks. “It was a crazy idea.”
Brooks, whose newest book is “The Happiness Files,” is about to teach his seventh happiness course. Enrollment filled up in 11 minutes with 400 more students on the waiting list.
“On the first day of class, I tell them about the most important thing in my life, the aim, and final end of my life, is my faith in God, my relationship with Jesus Christ,” he said. “I always have students who wind up coming back to church, who grew up in the faith, and they wind up back in Mass, and it’s unbelievably satisfying, fun, and I love it.”
Brooks shared some surprising results of his research demonstrating that people are happier when they are older with peak happiness coming around age 70. “The truth is, most of you already know that the secret to the happiness that you seek on this earth is not the worldly success that the world promises,” he said. “The sum of their achievements is not their worth. It’s the sum of the loves that they cultivate over the course of their lives. And they get closer to the people around them as they get older, not further away.”
A turning point came when Brooks started attending daily Mass and praying the rosary with his wife. “The saddest, loneliest people I ever met are the most successful people that actually never figured out how to grow in their faith, to cultivate their friendship with God,” he said.
Instead of making a bucket list for your birthday, Brooks challenged the sellout crowd of 150 to want less. “Make a reverse bucket list of all the things you’re going to stop doing,” he said. “All the things that you have, the abundance and wonderful things in life, divided by all the things that you want. Haves divided by wants. This is a mathematical formulation of the message of our Savior. Work the denominator of your desires and want less. This is what really successful people of all faiths and even no faith are able to figure out.”
Before Brooks spoke, attendees mingled and shared their enthusiasm about the first meeting of the Assembly of Catholic Professionals, established by Bishop Michael F. Burbidge. “There’s a lot of opportunity here for leaders to address evangelical concerns with people. We’re seeing that a lot with our company right now,” said Philip McShurley, chief operating officer of Roof Simple in Front Royal. “We’ve got people coming in who have never talked to a Catholic in their life.”
“Thanks to Bishop Burbidge for helping remind us that this is our main mission, no matter what your business is, ” said Sophie Crooks, assistant executive director at Mercy House in Manassas. “Our main mission is to share the Lord with each other and to all come together and connect is just super important.”
“I think it’s going to be great to connect with other professionals in the diocese, getting guidance from the bishop on how to serve, but then also how to live out our work and be saints in whatever God’s calling us to be right now,” said Anthony De Trane, of Apollo Wealth Management. “Your Catholic faith doesn’t end when you leave the doors and you should be tapping into that community and being nourished by it and serving it as much as you can throughout the week. So this event’s a great example of that.”
“It’s just a great time to get together, to connect, and to kind of find out ways that we can network and support each other,” said Maria Brackett, who works at Divine Mercy University.
“If you take anything out of today, it is my hope and my prayer that you see that there are other professionals, other young Catholics who share your faith and share your virtues and want to make a difference by bringing Gospel values into our world,” said Bishop Burbidge in his opening remarks. “It is my hope and prayer that this assembly will continue to grow, and we will have multiple opportunities throughout the years to lift up and to encourage each other in faith.”
