"I don't think you can be truly happy unless you're serving others"

Happiness here is framed as less a private emotion than a social outcome. Pleasure, comfort, and achievement may satisfy for a time, but a deeper, steadier contentment often arrives when attention moves beyond the self. Serving others interrupts the loop of self-absorption, breaks isolation, and ties one’s daily effort to something larger and more enduring than personal preference. It supplies meaning as well as connection: not only am I feeling good, I am useful. That sense of usefulness can be surprisingly stabilizing, especially when life feels chaotic or status-driven.

There are practical reasons this tends to work. Acts of help invite reciprocity and belonging; people who give are more likely to be woven into networks of trust. Service generates gratitude, both given and received, which reshapes perspective and reduces envy. It can also build competence and purpose: teaching, mentoring, showing up for a neighbor, or doing one’s job with care because it benefits real people. Service need not be grand or public; small, consistent acts often transform both giver and receiver. And when someone with visibility or privilege leans into service, the act can become a corrective to the distortions of fame, grounding identity in contribution rather than attention. Prince Harry’s military experience and advocacy suggest an understanding that proximity to others’ suffering clarifies values and offers a route to healing one’s own wounds.

There are limits to the claim. Service without boundaries becomes martyrdom; exploitation disguised as altruism is not a path to joy. People pass through seasons where receiving help is their service to the community. Yet as a rule, happiness that endures looks less like a chase after sensation and more like a byproduct of commitment, to people, to place, to a cause. Serving others converts daily effort into meaning, links personal stories to a shared good, and offers the simple relief of not being the center of the universe. That relief often feels like happiness.