The Oscars: Not Always About the Money

The Oscars represent big money: big salaries, big movie revenue, big prizes. Winners can boost their earnings by 20%. Losers took home a “Swag bag” worth $80,000 (includes pet supplies and a walking tour of Japan).

Nominee Jonah Hill stands out a bit from his peers. He worked for “minimum wage” (according to Hollywood standards) to get the role in “Wolf of Wall Street.” Why? Because he was happy to get the role. His priorities are in order:

“This isn’t what you make money for,” he added. “You make ’22 Jump Street’ or you do other things and you pay your rent. But this was … I would have done anything in the world. I would do it again in a second. … It’s not about money for me. None of this [expletive] is about money. I wanna make money to pay my rent. Hopefully, have a family one day and have kids and stuff and pay for that.”

Jonah has a good chance of being happy in life. A recent study cited in Psychology Today shows that happy people are wealthier than not-happy people. Happy people get more opportunities… make better decisions… are healthier mentally and physically… and have better relationships. And so, they will make more money.

Are you surprised?