Success may mean different things to different people, but how you define success makes all the difference. When Bob Bly asked the question in preparation for a class he teaches, I thought it interesting that there were some far off base answers, at least by my own definition.

“How many of you want
to be successful?”

Every hand in the room shot up.

I then asked: “Who can tell me what success is?”

Not a single hand in the room was raised.

“If you don’t know what success is,” I asked the students, “then
how are you going to get there?”

This is the dilemma facing many people I meet today.

They desperately want to be “successful.”

But when you ask them what that would mean, they either can’t
give you a definitive answer, or they say it would be becoming a
millionaire.

They define success by how much money they have because that’s
how the world keeps score.

Is a millionaire successful, just because he has money? Not by my summation. I believe there’s more required to be successful, and money may or may not be a part of that definition. Mother Teresa was exceedingly successful in her lifetime, but money wasn’t part of her definition of success, other than maybe other people donating money to help her help others?

Think of people in your world who are successful and determine how many of them were successful. Was it their money that made them successful, or was it something else?

A business coach can help you find your own definition of success. It probably isn’t money, or even an amount of money. More likely your definition of success will include what money can bring you, and that doesn’t necessarily include a dollar value.