Working hard to fuel your business vision and great perseverance brings much-desired success. The idea about success remains popular but its definition means different to everyone and so is it’s measure. But is there any truth behind the business success hype? Well, to some it’s a gateway to happiness, work-life balance while to others, there’s nothing too exciting about it.
We sought to hear from entrepreneurs and business owners and here’s what they had to say about business success.
#1- For real entrepreneurs, business success is the MOST important
When you’re an entrepreneur, that’s the most important thing in your life, it’s who you are. Your success defines you. How can business success ever be overrated? That is complete nonsense. You work so hard and sacrifice so much for your vision, your ideas, and this company you’ve built and nurtured. It’s not just matter of personal pride and fulfillment, it’s a matter of meeting your own expectations and keeping your promise to your clients and your employees. For real entrepreneurs, business success is the most important thing in their life.
Thanks to Hosea Chang, Hayden!
#2- Depends on one's definition of success
The definition of success differs from person to person, and business to business. While one may see profits as a success, others may view it as customer satisfaction, employee retention, or innovation. Success is not overrated when you define what that means to you, pursue it and measure it.
Thanks to Liz Grossman Kitoyi, Baobab Consulting!
#3- Yes, business success is overrated
I am saying this because of the experience of the ones who have tasted business success, but they still did not find complete contentment. There is still something lacking in their life. If you are a business tycoon does not mean you have all that you need. You need to be successful, physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. It means you have to see other aspects of life. Success does not just revolve around money only. People often see successful business people and idealize him, forgetting that they might not be successful in other aspects of life. So, it's important to see all the essentials of life. A successful entrepreneur knows that money is not the end goal; the actual business success is the freedom you get to make your life choice. The higher you take chances, the more success opportunities you’ll get to experience which success is not end profit, it's just overrated.
Thanks to Simon Lyon, Sound Junky!
#4- It depends on how you think
I believe it's the little successes that we make along the way in our business that makes me truly happy inside out. For some people, even the little things matter the most, and for some, even everything is not enough. If the rest of your life is balanced and you are happy, then business success can even be underrated. If it's the other way around, then its definitely overrated.
Thanks to Rajiv Lamba, SurveySensum!
#5-Depends on the individual mindset
It depends on who you are and on the individual mindset of everybody. Me personally, it's not overrated. Watching my business perform and grow truly makes me happy, and that's the only thing I care about. Some people aren't successful at all, yet they're happy making $40k. If they're happy, they've won. If you make $400 million and are miserable, then You've lost. I believe that if business success makes you happy, then it's underrated; it doesn't it's overrated as shit.
Thanks to CJ Xia, Boster Biological Technology!
#6- Can be overrated if your goals are easier to achieve
To some, business success is overrated because they don't set goals that are high enough. They achieve it and are left with the question ‘now what?'. The truth is, no matter the thrill isn't in just achieving goals, it's about the process of achieving them. As an entrepreneur, the easier you accomplish your goal, the more you will feel that success is overrated. However, if you set your goals higher, that feeling of accomplishment will last longer and not only will it make you appreciate the success you've accomplished, but it will drive you towards achieving more of it.
Thanks to Safeer Qureshi, Spg Media!
#7- Cannot be overrated but..
Success can be measured in many ways and that really makes ‘measuring success' a complex issue. For example, are you measuring revenue growth, or profitability? A slower growth company can easily return higher dividends to its shareholders compared with a higher growth one, where profits are constantly reinvested. If you take into account non-financial motives, then is a company successful if it achieves its mission but at the expense of profit? That mission could be impactful, to invest in it's team or community, become net carbon zero or promote more diversity within its staff. A company is nothing without its customers; so is a company successful if it generates profit but has a low net promoter score, or review rate? For me, success cannot be overrated. But there needs to be a balance of internal and external measures. At least that's how my team and I measure it in a way we can all be successful.
Thanks to Aaron Dicks, Impression!
#8- It's not overrated when you're measuring it right
When you're considering success, first you have to look at how you're actually measuring whether you're successful or not. The most common measure of success for a business is profitability, but even that comes with data that isn't defined. Are you looking at your company's profit for a day, a month, or a year? A business can be highly successful revenue-wise this year, by leveraging things that will come back to your organization's bottom line next year. It's important for you to consider what actually means success to you, whether that be long-term profits, or work-life balance, or something else. As long as you're properly measuring success for yourself, you'll find that it absolutely isn't overrated.
Thanks to Flynn Zaiger, Online Optimism!
#9- It's overrated when people just see the tip of the iceberg
Business success is not overrated. It only becomes so because people only see the tip of the iceberg and they do not know what it took before that business got to the top of the ladder. This is the reason why they do not appreciate other people's success. It took a lot of obstacles, challenges, failures, and hardships before a business reaches the peak of success and that is what makes every victory sweet! Success is not overrated because for every success story lies the story of a person who once started as a dreamer and worked his way to the top.
Thanks to Lewis Keegan, SkillScouter.com!
#10- Depends on who is defining it
No. Business success is not overrated; as long as you are the one that defines the metric which qualifies the success. Too often we let other peoples definition of success cloud our view and put us on a path to empty promises.. Some of the commonly accepted success metrics are the number of employees we have, total revenue, how big our latest fundraising round was or the resultant valuation of that round, even net income might seem to be a qualifier of success. I've chased these metrics before but never felt as successful as the times I'm with my family doing something amazing that I know is only possible because of the businesses I've built. The fact I can provide a unique set of experiences to those whom I love is my metric of success. I wish I would have figured that out sooner so I could have spent more time enjoying that feeling of success and spending less time chasing someone else's definition of success.
Thanks to Daniel Beck, 401GO!
#11- It's not overrated
I don't think business success is overrated. Without business success you will need to work your entire life for someone else, building their own business or dream, and that will take 8 hours minimum away from you every single day plus commute time, giving you only a few hours to do what you choose each day. No matter how you look at it, without business success, you never even have the chance to live a life you truly choose or enjoy.
Thanks to Stacy Caprio, Accelerated Growth Marketing!
#12- It doesn't have to be overrated based on wealth
Business success should never be overrated. It's because of businesses that we build infrastructures and cities, we always aim high to create a better tomorrow and that should never be overrated. It's very fulfilling to be able to see businesses grow and be able to employ all sorts of people and see how their products have a positive impact on customers. Understanding that success doesn't have to be overrated just because you are not extremely wealthy will change how you see success overall.
Thanks to Daniel Snow, The Snow Agency!
#13- It's overrated if you only look at the end goal
Success is not the day you reach your goal, it’s the journey of hard work that it took you to get there. So yes if you’re looking at success as that final goal, it is over-rated. In order to be successful, you just need to do it. Work everyday putting in the hours of hard work and determination. That is what success is, and you will only be able to capture it after putting that time in. You would never appreciate your “success” if it was just handed over to you. In fact, you wouldn’t call that success at all. Just as if you are handed the keys to a large corporation from your parents doesn’t make you successful, it makes your parents successful until you prove that you belong there with your own trails. You need to keep grinding and appreciate every downfall. Without falling there is no story.
Thanks to Daniel Booter, D.B. Marketing Group!
#14- Business success is largely hype
Business success is largely hype – and should be rigorously avoided by anyone who genuinely wants to spend their limited time on earth in the richest way possible. I speak from real knowledge, because I have had some of the most successful executives in the country as my clients. There is absolutely no statistical correlation between their success and the quality of their lives. Most have sacrificed marriages, relationships with their children, health, vacation time and more in pursuit of quarterly KPIs and enough money to buy material things that are no substitute for the full potential richness of a broader human experience. Also, the pursuit of business success often requires the development of a certain blindness to or denial about things – things like the exploitation of labor, the destruction of the environment, the cutting of ethical corners, etc. Consistently practiced, this denial leads to a kind of cognitive dissonance that blunts one's direct engagement with reality and isolates one in a cocoon of other acquisitive businesspeople. Again, not the richest way to experience the fullness of what life has to offer. Making a decent living is worthwhile. And being part of a high-growth organization can also be a rewarding experience in its own right for a certain period of one's life. But to spend one's entire adult years chasing the phantom of growth is not the best stewardship of finite mortal being.
Thanks to Lenny Liebmann, Morgan Armstrong LLC!
#15- It's overrated if..
I think any business success becomes overrated if at the end of the day you don't have anyone to share your wins with. Meeting those revenue goals, signing a big project, launching new products is exciting and rewarding but if you make this your life’s sole focus, you are setting some really unrealistic goals and expectations of yourself. In my observation, the small things in life are mostly underrated like doing that quick round to a cafe with your friends, a 30 minutes meditation activity, spending quality time with your family–all these bring real joy to your day. Your definition of success only makes sense if it takes into account both professional and personal aspects of life.
Thanks to Alejandro Rioja
#16- Yes, success is overrated
Yes, success is overrated as a lot of people who are successful in business do not have a happy or healthy family and social life. Business success is great, but at what cost. Business success can be addictive, so many entrepreneurs promise themselves and their family that it'll be 2-3 years and once the business is doing well they'll be able to set aside more time for family and social commitments. However, as businesses get bigger the CEO/Founder gets more invested, too invested even. Possibly setting up different businesses as well as scaling their current one results in even less personal time. My personal measure of success is a balanced business and social life. Even Alan Sugar, host of the British version of The Apprentice has claimed he always takes the weekend off, no matter what. And he is reportedly worth over a billion dollars!
Thanks to Chans Weber, Leap Clixx!