We believe that success can mean different things to different people – not everyone wants the same thing, what drives happiness and fulfillment for one person doesn’t necessarily predict what will for another. That said – if we simply think of success as being effective at achieving one’s goal – whatever those goals might be – then we can set a sort of common

Maya Barlow

Honestly, I couldn’t tell you exactly what it takes to be successful. I don’t believe that there is a “one size fits all” answer. We all come from such unique experiences and circumstances. The measurement of success is also unique to each person. Everybody’s idea of success is different. I embody the traits that I believe help propel me towards my definition of being successful. The three traits I deliberately aim to engage in are consistency, discipline, and truth. During The process of growth and improvement, honesty is key. Read more>>

Michael Carter

I believe success is a mindset, and not a destination. It’s easy to get wrapped up in a thought that once I achieve “X”, I will be happy or I will have made it. Early on in my career I felt that way. When I had finally “made it”, I felt nothing. I remember asking myself, “Well, what’s next?”. I had to find other ways to find fulfillment in my career and redefined my success. I’m now able to find success in each transaction I close. Now, defining what I think it takes to be successful being self-employed or an entrepreneur is fairly simple. It’s not for the faint of heart though. You have to be persistent, you have to have a drive. Something that makes you want to get out of bed every morning and push you to achieve the direction you want to take yourself, your business, and your family. Read more>>

Brianne Thomas

I think success is defined differently by everyone. For me, success means happiness. It means supporting my family, my hopes & dreams, and showing my daughter anything is possible with a little hardwork & determination. I feel like so many people think success is dollar signs and paychecks, but I personally feel like success is what fulfills your soul the most. To be successful, it takes perseverance, passion, and drive. You have to be willing to work hard for the things you want to achieve and succeed at. You also have to have a reason why you’re doing it. What fuels you? Inspires you? Why do you get up and chase that version of success everyday. Read more>>

Logan Montague

I think success is a very relative term. Being successful is different to everyone. To me, it varies every day. Most people think they’ll be successful if they can get that dream house with the dream car. While those are great, it doesn’t always translate to being successful. Being successful is also about being happy. It’s finding a balance between your career and your life. It’s ensuring that all of your families basic needs are met. Anything else is just extra. I could have all of the money in the world, but if I wasn’t happy and emotionally present with those around me, what would it be for? Nothing. Read more>>

LaKia Starks

What do I think it takes to be successful? First, I definitely believe it depends on the person. For me, I defined my success as having financial freedom to take care of my family, waking up going to a job that makes me happy, peace of mind, having a healthy lifestyle and living life to my full potential. Now, what did it take for ME to be successful? A lot of tears, sacrifices, and early mornings (literally). Read more>>

Emily C

Many view success as a peak; the top of the mountain or hard work. In reality, success is ongoing. Success is working two jobs to save the money you need to start a business or buy a home. Success is also juggling a family and work. It isn’t the end of the road; you can be successful all along the road. The forward momentum and growth are success. The only failure is giving up on trying. It takes hard work, dedication, and persistence to be successful. All of these traits give us drive which propels us forward. Read more>>

Paula Leon-Gambetta

I think success is measured subjectively. I believe my definition of success will be different than the person sitting next to me and the person sitting next to them and so on. One of the things I’m grateful for having worked for a year outside of graduating college before entering grad school is that I got jobs right away, enjoyed making my pay but realized the exhaustion of working 3 different jobs, dealing with 3 different HR’s and 3 different schedules that when I entered Grad school I had a class that posed a question that I think everyone should ask themselves. Read more>>

Kim Karnes

I believe being successful as an artist one has to be very organized with their time, dividing it between, creating and unfortunately marketing. I have just started making art my professional business at 58 years old, painting full time. Right now I am creating 2 very different series of paintings. The first are my figurative oil paintings, these utilizes my figure drawing abilities and merges them with my experience in plein air landscapes. Read more>>

Eric Thomas

Life is a journey where you’re never fully arrived . There are plenty of ways of being successful but I will give three things that I feel you can’t be successful without! First it begins with the thought process. What are you consuming? If you’re interested in becoming an entrepreneur you should have friends with businesses and you should be studying business. If you want to be in the entertainment industry you need to surround yourself with individuals involved in the industry. Read more>>

Jaffee Judah

Hmmm… That’s a loaded question and it’s no one specific way to answer that. I think to be successful it takes faith in self, a smart team or tribe, clear direction, and staying curiously engaged. So far this has been a successful year for me because of all of those things. A success story to me is Gaining Trust and sharing power on important decisions. I’m not the typical CEO or whatever that’s supposed to mean I lean into my authentic self, morals, elders, mentors, and ancestors who all contribute to the journey we each are here to fulfill. Read more>>

Mente Bezuneh

You’ve got to have patience. Success is different for everyone. Some people hit that “sweet spot” quickly, others take more time. Either way – be patient and learn from everything you do. Don’t fall into the trap of success equals a certain dollar amount, either. If you’re focused on the money then you’re spending energy away from your passion, and that’s counterintuitive. If you’re good at what you do and put everything you have into it, the money will follow. If you’re patient and focusing on the right things, then odds are you’ll have more fun along the way. It’s like an equation: patience + passion = play. Read more>>

Marissa Willis

I think it takes the ability to believe you can as well as a lot of mindset work. I feel like many people have some kind of mental block, especially when starting out, that holds us back. These blocks can be related to money, self worth, things we were taught growing up, and a plethora of other things. I think true success comes when you practice mindset work that will then allow you to step into who and what you want to be – especially in relation to business ventures. I also don’t think being successful is or should the end of the road, instead, I believe it’s a constant progression as we grow. Read more>>

Nastassja Sassau

Sucess. What is success? By definition success is an accomplishment of an aim or purpose. To be successful it takes hard work, dedication and consistency. Set obtainable goals and take the necessary steps to reach them. Focus on one thing at a time to maintain focus, perfect your craft and grow your business. Read more>>

Destiny Walden

From being one both sides of the line… I learned that all it really takes to be successful is drive and passion. You have to have some kind of beast within you to tear down all the obstacles that hit you along the way. Setbacks will come, just focus and keep soldiering forward. Read more>>

Conor Douglas

Being successful takes hard work and ambition. Those are the foundational elements for any person to become a success. More times than not, people have the ambition and are willing to put in the work. What I find to be a roadblock for most is the amount of time it takes to be successful. It doesn’t occur overnight and at times it can be discouraging. That combined with questioning yourself on whether or not what you’re doing is right. Read more>>

Bruselin Davis

Success is a concept that is different for every person. Whether it means having a great career, a home or a family, success is something everyone strives to achieve. It makes you feel proud, it gives you excitement, and it lets you know you have made an impact in a competitive world. Success is not something you attain without putting in the effort, however. It is a mindset you must adopt to accomplish your goals and grow as a person, and it takes hard work. Read more>>

Rashad Harrell

To be successful requires a relentless drive. You have to “see” yourself as a success long before you actually become one. You have to let the “no’s” motivate you, not deter you.. Putting in the man hours on your specific craft is an inescapable necessity.. But most importantly YOU have to define what success looks like to you. There are different definitions and levels to success. Only you can tell when you have reached that level. And when you do remain hungry because there is always more to be done and more to accomplish! Read more>>

Ricardo Arroyo

For the most part of my adult life. I have been asking myself the same questions everyone else asks themselves. “What is my purpose? What am I meant to do? Should I do something I hate for money to then use that money to do what I love? Wrapping your mind around those questions could send you down a spiral that most likely will end in disappointment for some, and pride for others. In my case; I always did what I had to do. I consider myself a hustler or a Jack of all suits. When people asked me “What do you do?” I would often reply with “what do you need done?” Read more>>

Julia` Gomelsky

I think success comes from passion, drive and focus. From truly loving and believing in what you do with the ability to stay focused on your end goal and keep going (especially when times are tough and challenging) is the key. Never give up. Read more>>

Domonique Miller

I believe to be successful in anything you do in this life you have to be driven in purpose. Purpose fuels your drive and ultimately it takes perseverance and consistency to be successful. I’ve learned that you can want to be successful all day, but in order to manifest that success you have to believe in yourself and your calling. I knew early on that I had a calling to work with dogs but also to use my voice to move people. Before I knew it I was hosting my own Podcast show and operating my own Dog Daycare. Read more>>

Sunshine Davis

I think that answer depends on how you define success. I used to be focused on the material things, status, wealth and wanted badly to have the latest just like everyone else. I worked hard and did my part to help make lots of people rich but I was so unfulfilled and directionless. Now that I know what’s important in life, I personally believe success means persevering towards the things that I love to do. Once I discovered(and I’m always discovering new ones) my passions, I knew it was my duty to bring them to life. And that will mean many things for different people but I know its what makes my life worth living. Read more>>

Malik Taylor

It takes dedication, perseverance, failure and lots of it. Pain and failure builds character. Prepares you for success because anything worth having is not easy. If it were everyone would have it. You have to be willing to do what others won’t today so you can do what they can’t tomorrow. You have to want whatever it is that you define as success more then you wanna breath. Read more>>

Shaee Presume

Honestly, to be successful I think it takes a certain type of discipline, consistency and relationship with God. You have to discipline yourself around money, you have to remain consistent in a world that’s always on go, and without God you’re nothing. Read more>>

Marcus Dickerson

I’ve always thought that being successful is subjective. One person’s measure of success is not the same as the next person and as I’ve gotten older, I have realized that my definition of success is peace and tangible legacy. I am immensely proud that I have gone against the wheels of society and decided to bet 100% on me. The first leg of my success is making the conscious decision that I can do this on my own. I have the tools and networking ability to make the appropriate connections to see these projects through to completion. The second leg of my success is not to listen to those who are telling me that I’m making the wrong decisions about my life whereas they’re only jealous that they have never tried themselves to bank on their own gifts. Being independent is NOT easy. Read more>>

Luv Jazury

Success starts in the mind. You have to see yourself successful before you actually reach success. You must have mental clarity in regards to what you want out of life then create a strategy to get there. Success requires you to stay mentally focused, be disciplined and have tenacity. Upon those things you must daily be around like minded individuals. People who share the same goals and dreams as you. I recommend joining a mentorship or mastermind group. Therefore you will hold yourself a lot more accountable to be successful. Also seeing the accomplishments of your peers will be even more motivating and light a fire under you. Read more>>

Robert Reyes

I have always said that success comes when knowledge and opportunity meet, in my case I learned everything I know in a self-taught way and the opportunity to create content for social networks professionally arose spontaneously, I already shared content before but in order to inform, suddenly many companies started asking for reviews for their business and the number of followers on my account started to grow rapidly; Currently I am over twenty thousand and I have created my own business of tourist trips to places near and far from my city, I share my experience in a professional way and I listen to the opinions of my followers. Read more>>

Shani H.

If you would have posed this question to a much younger Shani, my answer to this question would have been different. I might would have said something like my faith, an elaborate degree(s), a corporate job, and money, I am still leading with my faith but the latter not so much. I believe what it takes to be successful is first realizing that success is not this cookie cutter package wrapped in perfection. Success is more of an inside job than anything else which is why this topic resonates with me. I had to first unlearn what I thought success was. Once I realized success is this unique journey it then shaped how I identified what it takes to be successful and how I could truly set myself up for it. Read more>>

Jessica McIntee

Being successful requires hard work, patience, prayer and meditation. If someone is not willing to put in the work and effort to accomplish their goals, the road to success may be a little more challenging. Patience is number 1 in any success story. The process of success takes time and can’t be rushed. Prayer and meditation is important for work life balance. Being balanced in all areas of life helps a person mentally; physically, spiritually and emotionally. Read more>>

Justin Cole

This question could be answered in so many ways as success is subjective. In business, I believe the best type of success comes from the combination of integrity, tenacity, and thoughtful strategy. Read more>>

Malia Sanders

My definition of success is being at peace. Gratitude helps me maintain this level of success. When you are thankful for every little thing, there’s less for you to worry about. Read more>>

Angela Caito

I believe that it takes many things combined to be successful. At the top of my list would be time commitment. It is important to set stringent times for work, as well as for play, when you are working towards success in your career, or even in your personal life. It takes a focus driven mind devoted to time honing your craft to develop the skills necessary to be the best at the work that you do. Read more>>

Laura Wilkerson

I think that success can be perceived in many different ways. Everyone will have their own definition of what that is. I believe success is having the courage to be yourself and do what feels right for you regardless of what everyone else is doing. Today it’s so easy to fall into that comparison trap. With reels, tik toks, and posts galore how can you not glance and gage what others are doing. Read more>>

Toni K

What does it take to be successful? First, I have two crafts that I love. I am a DJ and a hairstylist. There were not a lot of female DJs when I first got started in the DJ industry. It was incredibly challenging to be able to make a name for myself in the male dominated industry. I wanted to learn as much as I could, so I would volunteer to carry equipment for some of the popular DJ’s only for them to turn me down. I had to work extra hard to learn the trade. I would practice day and night learning to mix music. Always putting in the work, being prepared, and never getting any sleep at night that I fell in love with the craft. Read more>>

Lulie Wallace

This is a great question! I think in being a entrepreneur there are so many different roads to go down to grow a business. There are so many tips, tricks, advice now-a-days that it can be daunting for someone who is just creative. I feel like social media has such a huge influence on business these days, that it can be overwhelming and hard to stand out. I think if you keep just trying to do the best quality work you can, and keep being consistent (easier said than done) is a better goal than making the best tik tok out there. Read more>>

Alan Ross

Success is what we all strive for and that may look different for us depending on our stage of life. Before I started my company, Texas Alarm Pros, I had been a freelance security technician for various national companies. I traveled quite a bit to the metroplex and would drive about 150 miles a day. I would solve problems and make customers happy. I found that I had an ability to trouble shoot issues and communicate effectively with customers. Read more>>

David Camhi

I think success is really confusing sometimes, we think money, awards, recognition, etc…but at the end, family, peace of mind and happiness is the one thing we disregard from the equation. Obviously, this comes with time and maturity, and it takes a ton of work and dedication, knowing clearly what you need and what you want, is the key for success. Read more>>

Karla Coppel

Well definitely, I say perseverance also being resilience to any situation you may encounter. Most people when they start a business or even some when it comes to choosing their career have the tendency of constantly changing their minds towards it, losing the main focus of why they chose to do that it in the first place, now I do believe that it is healthy to change your mind if you feel something isn’t for you, But when you really want something you know it and it will not be easy for sure, it is an experience where you have to try many different things until you find the right one to make it work, in this make take a while before you become successful, so this is where most people start to get tired, lose focus towards the objective and simply stop trying. So my advice would be, take it slow day by day and do not give up. Read more>>

Melissa Tyson

I believe success takes sacrifice, consistency, commitment, and determination. Throughout my life, hearing a no meant nothing to me! I firmly believe you can do anything you put your mind to. Giving up is not an option; pushing through is the only one for me! I saw my immigrant parents come to the United States and work hard doing domestic jobs to build a better life for themselves and their families. My parents worked two to three jobs a day. I didn’t understand the sacrifices they were making to create a legacy at the time. From watching them at a young age, their work ethic was instilled in me to persevere and never give up! Read more>>

Raven Finley-Flowers

I believe it takes courage, knowledge, a community and a plan to be successful. Success is based off the consistent actions of working towards a goal . Keep in mind your actions have to be progressive steps . You can’t do the same thing and expect a different result, just because your being consistent. Regardless of the path that one has to take it’s important to know that their will be a lot of things that might deter you away from what you originally set out to do. It takes courage to pull through especially when your emotions make you feel otherwise . Read more>>

Joy Hmielewski

In the photography industry I’ve seen this change drastically over a decade. While success is unique to each individual company, there has been a divide in two schools of photography. There are the purist photographers who are technical and strive to know their gear and take technically appealing photos and there is the group of photographers who look at it as more of a fun passion project. Both have their purpose, but I think the first part to becoming successful is to figure out which group you fall into. Technical photographers are focused more on getting it right in the camera while the passion group seems to fall more into how they felt in the moment. Read more>>

Erkc Lang

Finding honest and reliable feedback has been incredibly important for me. Sharing honest feedback with an artist is hard, so I really appreciate it when I find friends and teachers who are willing to be honest with me. If I’m not in class or working with someone I trust to challenge myself, I’m not growing–and that’s the fun part! Read more>>

Steven Eugene Kuhn

Success is seen to be elusive for many business owners who strive to be better, get the education, take the courses, gain experience, yet somehow we are always looking to the future for the next qualification or degree. This keeps us on our toes and at the same time makes it difficult to feel satisfied with what you have actually achieved. Read more>>

Caroline Thompson

Home is so important, as it is the place from which we leave each morning and return to each evening. It provides security and shelter, and is a sanctuary which gives us an escape from the everyday busyness of life. As a full-time, Residential Real Estate Agent, I get to help guide my Clients throughout the process of buying, selling, or leasing a property, that they in-turn will make their home. I honor the concept of home, and it is extremely rewarding to be a part of that process. Read more>>

Nikki Jabs

I think the definition of success has been reduced in America to your career and financial income. As I grow older, I come to realize that success expands beyond a career and money. When I was a police officer, my entire personal identity was to “Nikki, the cop.” I had two college degrees and people considered me as successful. I did not feel successful though. I didn’t have time to relax or travel due to the demanding hours of being a first responder, which also led to very poor sleeping habits, I was missing opportunities with friends and family due to my odd and unpredictable hours, and had no time for my own hobbies. Read more>>

Michael Van Jones

My partner Luisa & I own Vintique Mall in Taylor. I think there are many factors and avenues for someone to be successful. For me it’s always been the determination and drive to get things done. Even if I fail, I’ll figure out a way to make it happen. On the other end it’s how bad do you want it? I always wanted to work for myself and be my own boss not realizing that I had no idea how to actually run a business. Read more>>

Jeffery Vallier

Simple, it takes Faith. Faith in yourself, your work, and your journey. You have to have faith that you will be successful in what it is that you want even when youre failing. Read more>>

Adi Adinayev

Being successful takes a lot of effort, passion and determination. I’ve been in this industry for almost 19 years, and still have many more goals to achieve. In creative business you always need to push forward and be determined to get new clients, stay innovative since there’s a lot of competition and be unique. Being successful is all of that and more – staying ahead of the game and always be on top. Read more>>

MIchael Burns

I think everyones path is different, but there are certainly some key factors that have come up in each story I have experienced. Most of the successful people I have met in life (and let me first be clear, success can mean many things – besides financial success) have had a clear vision to reaching their goals, and with an obsession. You can add in the usual work hard, prepare, read and so on – but again the successful people I have met or read about did not let failure or setbacks get in their way. They were driven, goal oriented, resilient, patient and to some degree, lucky (one attribute to success that I feel is very much overlooked). Read more>>

Karli’e Whitfield

In the couple years of taking my designing passion seriously, what I believe it takes to be successful is continuously fighting everyday to be a better version of yourself than you where yesterday. Everyday is a new day to have a new mindset on how you can accomplish your goals. Trial & error, If one concept don’t work, note that and start again with the new knowledge you gained from that experience. Read more>>