The Meaning of Success
The idea of what success is or means is a common question we all ask ourselves at one point or another. It often is an ice breaker question at school during the start of group projects or a introspective question by professor trying to get to know their class. Regardless of what the platform is in which you are trying to answer this question, it really is a great question. SO, what does success mean?
Success is defined as “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose” according to a quick google search with synonyms such as “outcome” or “results” according to the webster dictionary. In a video by Nick Bare discussing what he did in his 20’s to be successful in his 30’s, he drops lots of hints as to what success looks like. I think he is telling us that success is betting on yourself and proving yourself right. Not about earning a certain amount of money, fame, status, or something of the nature. It is about discovering your passion, setting goals, and betting on yourself to achieve these goals even when everyone around you or your circumstances doubt you. In a separate video, Nick Bare stated “Doubt only becomes real when you begin doubting yourself”.
For a quick background on Nick Bare for those not familiar, he is the Founder of Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN) which is a sports nutrition supplement company. Nick Bare began this business while he was in College doing ROTC and ultimately continued to build and shape the business over the next few years as he graduated college and served 4 years as an Active Duty Army Officer. He is an individual dedicated to leading by example and following through on goals and ambitions he has set in front of himself. His story is a prime example of what betting on yourself means. He started this business while he was a college student with no money AND while training to become an Officer in the US Army. Then, still with no money (but a steady job), he continued to build this business and not listen to the hate comments and doubt being projected his way while he served his time. As an Active Duty Army Officer at the time of writing this article, I can attest to how busy and difficult the lifestyle is. Between being in the field for weeks on end for training and out of the country for various reasons, spare time is a rare commodity. He bet on himself though and ultimately built a profitable business with a team of employees and extensive reach. You can learn more about BPN and Nick Bare’s story here or check out his YouTube here. I have no reason to add this other than I am just a huge fan his message to the world and want to do my best to support him.
The world will tell you success means being famous, owning a huge house and fancy car, or making millions of dollars. Perhaps after you take a look at yourself that is what you decide success means for you. Nothing wrong with that! I think the important lesson her is you have to figure out who you are first in order to define what success means to YOU. Perhaps you were a child of divorce and a success means having a happy marriage. Perhaps you grew up in a family that did not have enough money to eat three meals day so success is making enough money to provide your family with a house and constant supply of food in the house. Perhaps you grew up on the opposite end of the spectrum and you grew up with a big house with abundance of food and vacations. So success to you is leaving home and being able to build your own life and supply your own family with a similar lifestyle. Perhaps you are tired of working a job making money for someone else, on their schedule and their mercy and success is building a career that gives you the power to live life your way.
For me, it all started my junior year of College. I went on mountain biking trip to Moab Utah with my best friend for a week during Spring Break. On the trip, I had 2 small yet life changing moments.
1) After completing the Slick Rock trail one evening, we decided to mess around on our bikes in the parking lot for a little while. After a bit, another women pulled up to her Campervan after finishing the trail and cracked open a beer. She saw us just messing around and offered us a brew. We all sat down by her van and got to talking. She told us she lived in this campervan full time and worked for a mountain bike company called Orbea. She would travel to various festivals and events to work the events on their behalf. She continued to explain what she did to us for a little while and her story had absolutely mesmerized me. I spent my entire life believing you had to choose a career between the military, engineering, medical field, or blue collar job (Indiana kid problems am I right?!). Learning that jobs like this actually exist and about the freedoms that can exist in career blew my mind. To the point it would later cause me some pretty crazy anxiety and depression issues, but story for another time! Later that same trip, my buddy and I hiked to Delicate Arch at night. My buddy is very into Astrophotography and wanted to capture star trails with the Arch. Watching the technical skills required to capture and put the image together. Then to the creative outlet it allowed you to have to generate the image was incredibly neat to me. Once again blowing my mind. It was because of these experiences I started down the path of figuring out what I really wanted from life and ultimately came to see what a successful life meant to me. To me, like Nick Bare, it is about betting on yourself. Setting personal goals, aspirations and letting no amount of doubt from the world get in the way. It is about bringing people I love along the journey with me and helping others discover success can mean far more than school teaches it to mean. I think success for me simply looks like continuously setting goals and never quitting. Failing is okay but quitting is not. For as long as I can set goals and continuously work towards achieving these goals, I will be successful. I believe that for the people around me as well. For as long as they never stop attempting and driving towards their goal, they are successful.
