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Nov 6, 2013
Success can mean a lot of things to many different people.
For entrepreneurs it might be profitability, growth, and more positive things created.
For some it could be overcoming fears or having a great set of friends to hang out with.
For some, it is having the spare time to do what you love best.
Overcoming obstacles, finishing school, inventing a cure, and more could be a great measure of success too.
Defining and measuring success on any level can be as vast as the drops of water it would take to fill the oceans of the whole world.
To make a long story short success is how you measure it as an individual. The definition is up to you. Whether you reached your goals, attained happiness or contentment is completely up to you.
It is personal, and ever changing. Priceless. Noble. Majestic.
Sep 25, 2013
Hi Shawn,
For me, it depends on what kind of success we are talking about.
Measuring personal success means to come as close to living up to your potential as possible.
Measuring business success means profit and impact, usually one doesn't go without the other anyway.
What do you measure success, Shawn?
Wishing you success, money, and happiness,
Christina Mendel
Business Performance Coach & Entrepreneur
Sep 25, 2013
How I measure success depends on what I'm measuring.
When I measure the success of a project within one of my companies, for example, I define metrics such as cost, time, return on investment, etc. and goals for each metric and simply track them. Success is meeting or exceeding the goals I've set out as shown by those metrics.
However, when I measure success on a larger scale, i.e. do I think I am successful, it is more about happiness and fulfillment. I think to myself, "If I had all of the money in the world and no responsibilities, what would I want to do with my life and my time?" Most days I can answer that question with, "Almost exactly what I am doing right now," and I consider that success.
Mar 29, 2013
From my side, I'd say that success is all about setting a step forward than we are now. It may be the growth that we were longing for, say the business growth and in turn it replicates your ROI as well as your customers.
The use of your service/product(s) gets increased as that you can compete with multiple survivors and can still be in a better position. This would be the expectation from everyone I suppose.
"Success depends or varies accordingly, unless or until you put in your effort to gain a better reputation" :)
Mar 8, 2013
One dollar at a time! Great question.
Earl Nightingale said, success is the pursuit (and achievement) of worthy goals.
So it would be different for everyone.
Mar 2, 2013
Interesting question. I think what the market sees as a successful person and what that person may think of themselves can be significantly different. The market often sees wealth and power. Yet the individual may see success as working in a profession or industry or environment where they thrive intellectually and an area that are passionate about. Being able to work flexibly in areas that I am passionate about is success for me.
Feb 28, 2013
Dear Shawn, I don't know whether you have a dog or not but a dog is supposed to have only 2 mental states... 'Happy' and 'Waiting to be Happy!' A man is a success if he gets up in the morning refreshed and goes to bed at night without headache and in between does what he loves to do... Where's money?
Feb 28, 2013
i would offer three areas of measurement, in order of priority;
1. Growth in net income
2. Customer loyalty
3. How much better off the world is because of your innovations
Net income is highest because that wealth that is created enables your ability to accomplish the other two objectives.
Feb 28, 2013
I actually wrote a blog post about this a few years ago as I was starting my business and contemplating what success would look like. I created a formula for success based on Gladwell's book, Outliers: The Story of Success.
Gladwell analyzed the lives of extremely successful lawyers, entrepreneurs, sports figures, and others to determine the ingredients of success of those he called "outliers".
Based on the book, I summarized the formula for success as:
Success = Passion + Talent + Hardwork (10,000 hours) + Opportunity (includes when, where, and to whom you were born). If interested, you can read the whole post here:
http://www.bizwritenow.com/blog/2009/4/6/thinking-more-about-success.html
Since that time it has become a bit simpler to describe, but still difficult to discover. Am I living my authentic purpose?
Feb 28, 2013
When you are completely satisfied with what you´ve done while meeting your expectations
Feb 28, 2013
First, you have to be clear and specific about why you are taking a specific step and what you wanted to accomplish by taking that step.
Second, you should have created a very specific approach to achieving what you wanted to accomplish
Third, Using the above two, you can clearly measure your success.
Be careful about setting what you want to accomplish and why. Its something like a top down chart
A) Final result intended, why, value derived
B) identify each of the steps needed to get you there, why you need to take them and what it will gain for you re achieving the final result
C) Plan each step, why you are taking it, how you will take it and what you want to get from taking that step
That type of approach allows for measuring success overall and in the steps needed-taken to get you to the final result.
Not breaking things down in that way often leads to too broad an objective and no real way to define how well you are doing towards being "successful".
Try it out in your next project, sales approach, planning a meeting, attending a meeting, etc. Its not easy but it does help focus you and what you do to achieve "success" and its surely measurable.
Please Let us know how it worked for you.
Thanks, Neil Licht ndlicht
Feb 28, 2013
Everyone has a different idea of what success is and that is why it can be hard to define the measurement metrics. Relationships for instance can be measured in terms of compliments and actions. Emotions can be measured by noting the length of time a person dwells on negative self talk. Other areas such as business, finance, health etc are easy to define with more material metrics.
The best definition of success has been around for many years:
"Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal" - Earl Nightingale
Feb 26, 2013
“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
Feb 26, 2013
Great question!
I define success first, obviously, before I can measure it.
My trick is to define it so that it's EASY (and almost impossible not) to experience and feel success. Feel successful.
This FEELING SUCCESSFUL, drives me and inspires me to generate MORE success.
I know it's not the conventional way of looking at it (I've a BCom from McGill University) as most people measure success more "objectively", using indicators that are amenable to accounting treatment.
But this "feeling" approach does not exclude more objective approaches. It's just one layer above. It includes and transcends previous conventional measures of success.
The ultimate illustration of this approach is expressed by inventor Thomas Edison, who -- in his mind -- never experienced failures. He always succeeded in finding a way that didn't work (thereby moving closer to the discovery or invention he envisioned).
Feb 26, 2013
It depends on the point of view - personal - family - busines - society - nation etc.
In business it mostly has been value creation either through growth or profit and mainly a combination of both. No business can sustain a lasting value accumulation without following good management practises. Personally I would recommend to make sure that making busines must be also fun - if you like what you do and feel good about it, it is easier to win battles and deals. The basis of everything is however a good health of the entrepreneur itself and his business as well.
Feb 26, 2013
Success to me is individual. To measure ones success compared to others like wealth, occupation, family or fitness level...we can always find someone more successful and mentally beat ourselves up. I set goals for myself, succeed when hitting them and raise the bar each time.
Feb 26, 2013
This is such a good question. Some people think it is being wealthy. Others think it is personal growth and adding value to the world. People have so many definitions and expectations about success. I like this quote from Bill Cosby: "In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure."
Feb 26, 2013
Thank you. He's a very talented comedian and businessman. He's an inspiration to us all.
I agree Mike, one mans success if creating wealth and other mans maybe helping some one over come something. For me it is personal and only you can measure it.