What Does Success Look Like?

Success is the point or state of meeting an agreed set of financial expectations. It can be viewed as being the opposite of failure. The standards for success can be based on personal belief systems and are relative to an individual observer or group. This article discusses the three general perspectives of success and looks at where you might find them.


The first perspective, the subjective perspective, relates what someone does or feels like they have achieved to how they see themselves. This can then lead to the second, objective perspective. In this frame of mind, goals and accomplishments are seen as an extension of who the person is. The person with the goal in mind may feel like they achieved their goal when they really didn't. For the objective person, the goal is important because it helps them do the things they want to do.

The third perspective, the objective or social status perspective, is relative. What one person sees as success may mean something totally different to another person. There are many examples of this. Someone may see a successful completion of a difficult task as one that was achieved with success. In the social status perspective, however, there is often little difference between what many people view as success and what someone else views as success.

What is the standard by which goals are measured? The three perspectives offer differing definitions of success. The two other perspectives deal primarily with goals themselves. The third perspective looks more closely at whether the standards by which goals are met relate to the desired achievement of those goals. By examining how goals are defined, we get closer to defining what success means to us.

When we ask what success means to me, I have to define what being successful means to me. Often, when I think about what success means to me, I think about what success means to others. I could be very wealthy but if my goals don't match my vision of who I am, I will not feel successful. Likewise, if I feel unfulfilled in my work, I will not be happy. In each case, what I want is to meet the standards set by the self, but what I want to do is determine whether the standards are high enough for me to feel successful.

Most successful people know what success looks like. They look at their own lives and determine what success means for them. Most successful people feel like they live up to the definitions of success they have defined for themselves. Success for these people does not exist in a vacuum; it exists in an interaction with the world and the people around them.

You cannot define success in isolation. You cannot define success by yourself, because you are a product of your circumstances. You cannot define success by what you have done before you, because you have no experience in the process. You cannot define success by what you hope to achieve, because if you don't know what you want out of life, how can you know what your goals are?


Success for these individuals comes from a synergistic experience with their bosses and the people around them. No one is an island. No one is a void. A success plan is based on the assumption that all people have the same goals - a good living, meaningful work and enjoyment. If you want your tech career to be defined by your own ideals and goals, you need to be sure you are running a company where your ideals and goals are a part of the culture. Only then will you feel successful.