Success is such a subjective qualifier of how well someone does in their career or in life. There’s an assumption that success is solely measured by financial accumulation of an individual or company but that assumption is inevitable in a capitalist society. I think that if one were to take more of a wide-angle look at a person’s life or a business’ accomplishments, one would have to take more factors into account that simply the digits in a bank account.

When I measure success in my work life, I consider so much more than money. I consider how I feel about the things I’m involved in, the impacts my work has on the community, whether I’m accomplishing the things I set out to, my level of inspiration and the new ideas that are borne of doing meaningful work are some of the ways I identify my work as a success.

In my personal life, I think about whether the work is filling me up or depleting me, if it aligns with my personal values, if it feels good or bad. It’s pretty simple, really. Feels good - keep doing it. Feels not so good - quit doing it. That’s what success looks like. The freedom to call those shots and to choose things that feel the best.

So with those metrics in place well ahead of finances, I most definitely am successful. I love the work I do, I love the people that i work with directly and indirectly, I love the impacts of my work. I am so dedicated to sharing my financial wealth with the community that makes it possible for me to do this work and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve said in interviews that I don’t want to be successful alone and that my achievements haven’t happened without the contributions of others so my successes are shared successes.

When I was younger, I would daydream about email inboxes exploding with orders and viral media attention but to be totally honest, I’ve seen what that does to a small business and it’s the fast track to burnout. I want my growth to be slow, organic, and sustainable. I want to enjoy each new expansion, development, and addition. As our team grows whether in our retail shop, as the need for a warehouse arises, our legal, business advisory, and graphic design partners, each new area of growth is something I am enjoying being part of and am proud to be in a position to continue to be so deeply involved in as much of the different operations as I am. I also know it won’t always be this way. There may well come a time when we scale such that I have employees that I don’t know personally. I think that if I can maintain my connectedness and the close-knit feeling for as long as I can, then I’m doing something right and growing at a pace that won’t harm the business.

As for failures, I used to tell my sons when they were small that if you aren’t making a few mistakes, you probably aren’t taking risks either. Try something, maybe get it wrong. Learn and try again. This is the process of growth and growth is the best part. It’s the whole damned point. It allows for enjoyment of literally everything, even the mistakes. Oh, and one more thing, mistakes aren’t failures. Not learning, not taking risks, not trying; that’s the failure.

So here’s to the folks who work their butts off doing what they love to make the world a better place. I know I wouldn’t want to spend my working life doing anything else. I might want to do more but in time, I’ll get to make/do/try the things that are most important to me and that makes me very happy.