Most people say they want success, but when you ask them what success means you get wildly different responses.  We recently asked some of the best and brightest in our community to tell us about how they define success and have shared their responses below.

Jamari Perry | Producer & Director

I define success by the people I impact with my work. I measure it by the mark I leave on people’s lives and not the amount of money in my bank account. Read more>>

Caryl Chinn | Culinary Consulting

Fairly early in my career I read an article that described how the definition of success had evolved with each generation. For the Boomers it was longevity / seniority – successful people stayed with a company for a long time and earned more seniority, had a pension, retired with the gold watch, etc. Then the Me Generation of the 80’s came along and it was all about money – successful people made a lot of money and would leave one company for another to make more money. Ostentatious displays of wealth equaled success. For my generation, Gen X, the definition of success changed again to “are you happy?” Because if you weren’t happy, it didn’t matter how long you had been with the company, or how much money you earned – you weren’t successful unless you were happy. Read more>>

Jesse Rossa | Rare Book Dealer

I think that success is being able to live your life on your own terms (as much as possible!). When you are working for yourself, it’s easy to never stop working- and it’s easy to have your work take over your life. But once you’ve figured out how to maintain a balance- and it’s different for everyone- I think you’ve achieved your greatest success. To be able to live by your own wits, skills, knowledge, and drive is an amazing thing. Read more>>