By Vanessa Statum, Director of Network Recruiting for Career Development Partners
“What is success?” would have to be one of the most asked questions in business and clearly one of the most difficult for people to answer. I heard many different answers: financial security, religious freedom, early retirement and one of my favorites “I will never have to buy tires again.”
Being a member of the Google generation, I checked to see what were the quotes from the ‘big dogs’:
Arianna Huffington, “To live the lives we truly want and deserve, and not just the lives we settle for.”
Thomas Edison, “Success is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration”.
One of my favorite women, Maya Angelou, “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”
At the end of the day we each have to answer that question for ourselves. It forced me to evaluate my own answer. I came to this conclusion…Passion. For me, success is the ability and mindset to live a life that I am passionate about. To leave this world hopefully better than the way I arrived. As a recruiter, my answer should be ‘obtain your dream job!’ but as a woman and human being I think success should be more than that. Be passionate about the decisions we have made and the path we have chosen. I pray that when my time on this earth is over that I do not look back and see miles of wasted moments that could have been used to accomplish something great for my God, family and community. I pray it was lived with passion. I pray that the advice I have given men and women going through career transition was “choose a career that is part of the full cycle of living a life of passion”.
What is your answer? The good news is, there is not a wrong answer. The only way to fail the question is by not having one. If you haven’t defined what your definition for your personal success is than I encourage you to STOP.
Stop letting another day go by that you feel life is without purpose or direction.
Stop putting off asking yourself the questions that force you to look deep into your heart and soul.
Stop and take time to ask yourself ‘What makes me happy?’ Journal your thoughts and feelings. When you see your life on paper it brings clarity. The answer is there, inside you.
I would love to hear your answer and the journey you took to find it. Drop me a line at [email protected] or share it here.
Your answer matters because you were created to create change in this world. I look forward to how your answer will change ME.
By Vanessa Statum, Director of Network Recruiting for Career Development Partners
