how much does outcome matter?

Sometimes, I hold the opinion that people use all kinds of excuses in order to be lazy, in the end, they could say, I choose to have more leisure time because life is about happiness and I have my own way to make myself happy. But as a matter of fact, when they were able to work more, they were quite happy, and even happier than if they had just killed the time in a certain way. Sometimes, I do feel pity for those who could have lived happier, but because of social pressure, they aspire too much to success and achievement and somehow they become so, how do i put it, so much like an economist, too focused, too outcome-oriented...then i would think to myself, that it would be so nice if a person works so hard simply out of passion because that spirit is positive for both himself and has a nice radiance on his audience, otherwise, it is just competitive pressure in the air, stuffy and unhealthy...