Many families have a multigenerational line of work. Think of the Bushes (politics), the Rothschilds (banking), or the Gambinos (mob stuff).
In my family, the business is academia. My late father was a lifelong mathematics professor; his father, a college dean and theologian. On paper, it looks like the apples don’t fall far from the tree. But look closer, and big professional differences emerge. My dad and his dad led intensely private, scholarly lives, whereas I, though I teach at a university, also write popular books and columns about happiness for nonacademic audiences and travel weekly for public speaking and media appearances.
I love my life, but my dad would have hated to do what I do. Inexplicably, he didn’t see the charm in spending 150 nights a year in Courtyard Marriotts. Different strokes, I guess. But for me, this kind of “public intellectual” career is wonderful. I see new airports every week, and regularly get recognized as that happiness guy who kind of looks like Stanley Tucci.
