We’ve been fortunate to connect with so many brilliant artists, business owners and leaders over the years and so we reached out to some of these talented folks to discuss what it takes to be successful.

Arianna Negri

I truly believe that success looks different to each individual. To determine what it takes for you to be successful, I think you need to decide what success looks like to you. Being in a creative field, my idea of success stems from multiple areas. Am I doing work that fulfills me? Is the work I’m producing exceeding my client’s expectations? And of course, am I earning enough income to support myself? While many people can equate success to wealth, there are a lot more facets than just money. If you’re making a good living, but in a job that you can’t stand, are you really successful? Read more>>

Marni Wintermute

Being successful is being passionate about your job. I treat my job like a family member. It needs a lot of attention and attention to detail. From the moment I wake up, I’m trying to think of ways to help people see my boutique as offering something different and unique from all the others. The fashion world is a hard place to be successful with all the competition from big online stores doing fast fashion. Us little guys have to be overly creative and that’s truly what I love! I love clothes and love to style them on all body types. I feel my success comes from being able to step outside the box and offering more than just the clothes. Read more>>

Roy Schwartz

Equal parts fortune and fortitude. The funny thing is that the two things that allowed me to succeed in life are contradictory: one is focus. Know exactly where you want to be, and have a clear plan of how to get there. People meander, drift around, wander with the whims of fate instead of being proactive. Before they know it, they have a family to take care of and their career has gone all over the place instead of straight up. I never took my eyes off the target. Read more>>

Stephanie Peters

Before anyone can become successful, they need to define what success looks like for themselves. The noise of our culture says many things about success, from business titles to a number on a paycheck. But does that matter to you? What do you care about? For my husband and I we started with this question, “what does a successful day at work look like?” For us we have two jobs, one that pays us a paycheck and parenting our 3 young boys. So a successful work day includes taking our kids to school and picking them up, being at their practices/games and feeding all their friends that come over after school to play. Read more>>

Carolina Gonzalez & Claudia Vilches

There are so many factors – both personal & in business – that go into what your own definition of being successful is. Many of us view success with a different perspective and have various tools of measuring what success really is to us. There is no right or wrong way to measure success and it will be different for every person you ask. Read more>>

Niki Marincakova ISwimMiami LLC

Success is by product and balance of work and joy. It Is very important to set our intentions before committing to do anything. Instead of trying to be successful we might as well be willing to help others, serve society and most importantly do what we love and what fulfills us. Following our purpose and our gifts might inspire people around us to find and achieve their goals and thats already success right there. Personally for me if there is just one child who loves swimming and is able to save his/her life in unfortunate accident because of my teaching approach, well, I don’t think I can ask for more successful moment than that. Read more>>

Kelly Greene

The term successful varies from individual to individual and company to company, but overall I believe it takes perseverance. Over the course of my life, I have learned more from failures and explored new opportunities when change occurred. Make it happen is part of our company motto for the Chief Science Officers Program and I am a firm believer that success is yours when you are determined to continue seeking opportunities. Read more>>

Marguerite Pluviose

I’ve had many triumphs in life as well as setbacks. I think the key of being successful is through setbacks and learning from the failure and moving forward. Even when things seem impossible or setbacks keep holding you back, focus on ways that you can develop your skills and keep soldiering forward no what. There have been times when I thought a mistake would be the end of my career but then I remember we are human and human are allowed to make mistakes in order for us to learn. Success doesn’t happen overnight but it happens through experiences. Read more>>

Sudha Srinivasamoorthy

The 4 P’s – Passion, Practice, Patience & Perseverance are most important for any business to be successful. One cannot be successful or reach our goals overnight, it’s the journey we take that determines our success. Read more>>

Melvin Howell

To be successful you have to be strong. Most people fail before they succeed. If they don’t fail they hit brick walls that stall them back so you have to be strong minded. I also believe you need a strong support system that believes and helps your business grow. Read more>>

Nichele Wells

Success is different for everyone. Success is something you earn when you put in sustained effort. It is also a mindset you must adopt to accomplish your goals and growth. You must be committed to your goals, stay focused and be mentally strong. It’s also important to have realistic expectations for yourself and the outcome and adjust them when needed. Take small steps to success and celebrate the small
victories. You will enjoy the journey more and learn what you’re capable of. Success doesn’t always Read more>>

Marcial J. Paredes
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To be honest, I think it really depends on what your definition of success is. Do you measure your success by how much money is in your bank account or material things? Or do you measure it by your accomplishments? How you live your life? etc. For me, it’s more geared toward simply ” living my best life.” To accomplish that, it takes different things at different times of your journey. In my opinion, it’s more of a mindset. We have to learn to change our perception and have a more positive outlook on life in order to accomplish success in the way I’m speaking about. Read more>>

Tarena Gilmore

I think it takes consistency and holding yourself accountable to the goals that you want to achieve in life. Making your business a priority and not just something you dive into every once in awhile you have to be committed to your craft and journey no matter how hard it gets. Read more>>

Liliana Villasenor-Sanchez

Having a plan of attack and sacrifice, a lot of it! It requires early mornings and late nights, constant meetings, networking, and lots of research. You need to understand the industry you are trying to break into. Ask yourself, what is trending? What do my customers want? What experience can I give them to be unique and have them coming back? Join a business group within your industry, because they will be the perfect support and encouragement you need to be successful. And last but not least… never give up! Read more>>

Michael Pearson

Being passionate about whatever you’re doing, and proper time management will set you up for success. Knowing when to prioritize deadlines, but still setting time aside to be creative and try new things are very important for me. Read more>>

Nikisha Grinstead

Success looks different for everyone. First and foremost, we fail at being successful when we measure our success to that of someone else’s. The world says success looks like, respect, money, accolades, freedom, happiness, health, but success should be defined by you. I believe wholeheartedly that everyday can be made to be a day of success. There’s a quote that “success is never owned, it is rented and the rent is due everyday.” Success takes discipline, consistency, hard work and God Discipline is crucial because no matter what you encounter, discipline will help you stay the course. This becomes essential to reaching your goals. Read more>>

Ulisses Souza

Hard work, is the main key for you to be successful. In my area of the restaurant business, in order for you to have success, you will need to be better than your competition. There are many businesses around, so you have to be good at what you do, be persistent, and be willing to always learning. Read more>>

Kendra McIntosh

To be successful is very necessary. Here are are few I think will do Be Passionate and do what you love Work Hard– Hard Work Will Always Pay Off Be Great– never settle for mediocre or average Know Your Value and Worth Remain Faithful Trust God and allow him to lead you every step of the way Stay Focused– write the vison and make it plan avoid distractions Serve– Meeting Your customer needs will always help you build a very strong and memorable brand/clientele Read more>>

Quar Brown

Truth is always the path to success. Being honest with yourself allows you to grow in a way that will be beneficial to your goals. Being real with potential clients is quality that will never go out of style. Being honest with those you seek to create with and conduct business with will create an environment of trust and comfort zone with everyone. Never fear being honest. Lies will possibly get you so far but it will always pull you back. Read more>>

Shatava Lindsey

Success is all about setting goals for yourself and crushing those goals. When I first started OURGLASS, I knew I wanted to create a clothing brand where women would feel confident about who they are are, they will celebrate their figures, and they will walk in a room and own the room. In order to create this dynamic brand, I had to constantly set goals for myself. Every week I would write down goals for the business. Read more>>

JACKIE WHITE

There are so many things you need in order to be successful. The first and most important is faith. You have to have faith in the things you can not yet see. Growth takes patience and time. Second would be belief, belief in yourself and your ability to achieve and accomplish any goal you put your mind to. Third, would be action. You have to be ready to take the correct actions. Fourth would be education. Strive to open your mind to reading and learning it helps with personal evolution. Fifth is consistency. Show up for yourself because you create your dreams and see them through to reality. Sixth is discipline you have to keep going and show up for yourself even when its hard. Read more>>

Arianna Feliz

I think in order to be successful you have to work hard and learn ways to grow your business. YouTube has a lot of helpful videos to learn skills from. For example, if you’re using a certain social media, watching videos can help you learn how to grow on that social media. Another thing you want to do is create products you love, because when you show these products that you love it’s easier for you to explain them and explain the benefits of it. Your customers will see your love for the product. Also, if you are wearing your products your customers will see you wearing them and like how it looks. They will be motivated to get the product because they like how it looks. Read more>>

Sarah Yates

What does it take to be successful? This question is deep and I requires a multiple part answer. First, it all depends on how you define success. As a small business owner, it’s tempting to define success by how much gross income your business makes or how busy you are. Likewise, it’s easy to get caught up in vanity metrics such as likes on social media or if any of your work goes viral. As I’ve struggled with both, I’ve had to intentionally sit down and create my own definition of success. To me, success is if I can grow my company, impact individual’s lives, and at the same time, Read more>>

Ricky Borba

Success is a vastly different defined term, depending on who you talk to . Most people define success as your socio-economic status. But that’s not how I do. When I think about success, I ask myself two questions. Am I doing what I know I was put on earth to do, and am I enjoying doing it? For me, both of those answers are yes. I know I was born to be a filmmaker, and it gives me all the joy in the world to be able to do so! But it took a LOT of hard work to get here! And on that road, I don’t think anyone would have looked at my socio-economic status and said “yeah, that guy is a success.” Because if that’s the lens you’re looking through, then there are going to be a lot of unsuccessful people in your life. Read more>>

Ryan Stephens

I believe success is measured in many different ways. A Clear vision of what success looks like to you personally is really the only way you’ll know once you have achieved it. That said, I have spent a lot of time thinking about what it looks like to me at each milestone. So to be successful, you have to have a vision of what you want to achieve in life and a plan on how to get there. Read more>>

Charly Yzaguirre

I think to be successful it takes a lot of determination and knowing that you can do it. Not letting anything or anyone bring you down. Everyone is going to have set backs but you can’t let those set backs keep you from going forward and making your dreams come true. You have to use those as lessons and just keep going. Read more>>

Montel Johnson

It takes believing that you can do all things for you to be successful. Even if it’s not your main talent , you would never know until you try. Many people have tried to make me feel that I have to be good at one thing and stick to it , when I never knew what I wanted to do until I reached a point where I forced myself to learn everything that interested me so that I knew whatever felt the best is what I wanted to do. However I still didn’t let that stop me for putting everything I wanted to do or learn under one roof and that’s how I came up with The House of Fashion Killa. Read more>>

Ro Rynd

I believe that there are 2 parts to be successful. Number one, I truly believe that success is a mindset. One must believe that they are already successful to be successful. Every part of the process, whether gain or set back, is an experience to achieve success. Of course, this is easier said than done. We often doubt ourselves and are inhibited by fear of failure. While it took me a little time to get to this mindset, I do not believe in failure rather only teachable and learning moments in time. The second part of success is making sure that one is doing what they are supposed to be doing in this life. If one is aligned with their correct position, then there is only forward motion. Read more>>

Travis Huffman

I believe it takes determination, passion, and clearly defined goals. This includes small goals and lofty, long term goals. A lot of people dream big, but then when they do not reach their big goal, they have a sense of failure that they never recover from. By setting a huge goal, or as I like to call it, a “big dream,” which is filled with small goals that are achievable, it acts almost like a step ladder to achieving your ultimate goal. Many people base success on what they see others accomplishing on social media, but a lot of these successes aren’t true successes. Instead, they are a lot of fluff with no substance. True success is creating a series of goals that are accomplished one at a time. The old saying is, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” And that is how I see success. Read more>>