In this Ask Evan episode, Evan Carmichael answers a viewer’s question about the moment he was happiest. He provides a two‑part response. First, he recounts the intense, high‑octane joy he felt when he sold his first software company—a venture he built from an apartment that served customers such as NASA and Johnson & Johnson across 30+ countries. After the sale, he experienced a period of searching and uncertainty, realizing that the fleeting high was not sustainable. This led him to a new purpose: helping other entrepreneurs through speaking engagements, videos, and daily interaction with his audience. He describes this ongoing work as a deeper, more consistent source of fulfillment, driven by the impact he sees on others. The video closes with a call to action for viewers to like, comment, and submit future questions.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. Welcome to another edition of Ask Evan. Today I'm answering a question from one of our YouTube viewers, VTNLinc, who wrote in asking, "When were you the happiest? Thanks for your inspiration. Don't stop making videos." So thanks for the question, and I'll make a deal with you, as long as you keep watching videos, I'll keep making them. In terms of your question, when was I the happiest? I'm going to give you two answers here. The first was when I sold my first real business, my software company. It was one of the happiest moments, I guess. We got a good price, we made a lot of money from it. It was something we had worked for years to put together and build from nothing, from an apartment. And we built it up and had customers like NASA and Johnson Johnson in over 30 countries, and we'd worked to sell the business and we eventually did that. And so there was a great sense of elation, happiness, a lot of overwhelming feelings of having sold the business after making that our goal to do. So it was a very intense high, intense happiness. What I quickly found afterwards though was, now what do I do? You know, I was not happy. I was, I wouldn't say depressed, but searching for something new to do and not knowing what to do every day when I woke up. And I think what a lot of entrepreneurs do is chase those highs, where what I ended up doing is trying to find a business that would fulfill me and make me happy every day. And it's not necessarily the great highs that I got, like when I sold my business, but I'm much more fulfilled in what I do. You know, I love what I do so much more now. So the helping entrepreneurs— this business started because after I sold my software company, I was asked to do a whole bunch of speaking to help entrepreneurs and got called in and hired to go, you know, travel and help entrepreneurs in different countries. And that gave me a greater sense of fulfillment and felt like what I was doing was really helping people, and that really spoke to what I wanted to do as my next calling, I guess. And so even in my day-to-day life, I wake up, I get your emails, I get your comments on YouTube, I get your Facebook comments, and that makes me happy. You know, I love seeing that we're having an impact and that helping people stay motivated in their business and give them ideas to help them grow their business. And it's a deeper sense of happiness, I guess. So the first one was such a high, very acute, and something that you chase, I guess. And I don't think I've necessarily gotten to that point with my current business, but I wake up a lot more fulfilled, very happy about what I do, and feeling that I'm really helping people. And so I guess it's a different kind of happiness, and I'm not really chasing that big high because I enjoy what I do every day, helping entrepreneurs. So, two-part answer to your question. Hopefully that helped. For those of you watching, If you liked it, please give it a thumbs up below. Makes me want to do more of these for you. And if you have a comment on this video, if you like the video or not, or if you want to ask me a question about your business, I'd love to be able to try to answer it for you. If you want to leave it in the comment section below. So thank you, and I'll see you in the next episode. Thank you.
