What does success look like?
Brooklyn Beta was a lovely conference for five years running. My favourite part of the conference was the time between sessions where I could talk to all the great people in attendance. When BB announced a Reunion meetup, I jumped at the chance. Yes, I hopped on a plane, and rented a nice AirBnB place to spend a few hours with thoughtful people.
I was not disappointed. (I was hungover but that’s another story.)
As I walked in the door of the Royal Palms, we were asked to fill out name tags. Along with our name, we were to write down what we’d like to talk about.
My question: “What does success look like?”
And so I asked people that very question throughout the evening.
Some people didn’t have an answer. (I don’t.) Some people would shift their focus of what they work on. Others would stop working altogether.
There’s some appeal to playing video games, watching movies, and really just doing what I want when I want. I’d still want to do something, though, and without the constraint of needing to pay the bills, I fear that there would be little to push me to actually get anything done. (Few people want to do the last 20%.)
So, I pose this question to you, dear reader: What does success look like to you? What do you do once you have it?
Conversation
Success is personal, and in my opinion it can be defined as occurring when your dreams get bigger than your excuses. My success once had something to do with money but then I realized there are no banks in heaven - as such it has everything to do now with experience, people, and leaving the world just a bit better than the way I found it. It's tough but failure is simply success in progress if you look at it the right way. Have fun defining yours!
Success to me is the financial ability to be able to try new jobs without having to bet the farm. So is success money? Yeah, but not so I don't have to work, money to do new work.
Success in life, love and business is being a part of great team. Great teams make magic together ... and, there's nothing better than magic!
I think I agree with Jody’s train of though: I consider people successful when they’re happy. And it’s also a matter of time: I have days when I’m successful, and then less successful afternoons. Above all, it’s yours to define. :)
I signed on to say that I believe success looks like happiness -- but Vlad beat me to it. :) Once upon a time I thought my success was measured by the number of lives my website saved (it was for a cancer center), but as I'm older and death is nearer, somehow that seems too high falutin. Also wanted to say, thanks for you blog! I'm normally a lurking fan.
There's no such thing as a state of success, because success defines a change of state. This implies that success requires change and being static is antithetic to success.
I think that one of the ways of cultivating success is to maintain a set of difficult, yet achievable tasks that are pleasant to perform in and of themselves. Success in new fields can be very inspiring, as well as success achieved together with a group of friends. But the only thing that is actually required for success is a perception of a change for the better.
my point of view Success not only the way of working or having more money in bank. I believe it means, making good relation with others & peaceful life. If you can control your deep anger & soul then you will be a very successful person in this world.
For me, it's simplicity. It's reducing the noise in your life so you can focus on the signal - the things that you value most. It's having less quantity of possessions, and more quality.
There's something very liberating about living with less.
Success is living life the way you envision it, making dream after dream a reality.