We asked some very talented folks to talk to us about success and what it takes to be successful. We’ve shared their responses below.

Sheena Perkins

There are three things I think are essential to be successful as a small business owner. The first essential thing is strategy. It took years and honestly I am still developing my business strategy. A business strategy is the road map to success on the goals you set out to accomplish and how you will differentiate yourself from others in your market. There will be different strategies for various areas of your business and may be fluid in nature. I also think providing value (importance of benefits over the price) to your clients and your audience is an important part of success. Read more>>

Krystal Alexandria

There are multiple things that it would take to be successful in the film industry. Firstly is willing to learn and continue to learn. Film is always moving forward and constantly changing due to fast technology and trends. Secondly is strong work ethic, completing your tasks on time and being reliable is important. Thirdly is good attitude. Film is a team collaborating system and everything changes with having a good attitude. Read more>>

Ahmad Alkhatib

Success has been a misunderstood term for centuries. Whether it means happiness, Financial Freedom, health, family, or any other noun people consider, I disagree. There has been years of research showing individuals of all categories who “seem to be” successful but disagree that they are due to their mental health issues. I believe success is development and acknowledgement when we are in the right mental space. For example, anyone can be a success, regardless of their point of life. Read more>>

Estefania Jimenez

What I think it takes to have a successful business are a couple things.First is to find the “Why”. When you are passed the excitement of starting a your new business and caught in negative experiences, one have to remember why we decide to action. Read more>>

eric sattler

I feel success can be in many forms. Not all success is financial, for some success is the ability to provide for your self or family with the ability to set a schedule suitable for your lifestyle. Read more>>

Noha Youssef

I personally think success is subjective. Success to you or me might be completely different than what success looks like to someone else. For me, success is finding joy in what you do while being able to make a profit out of it. See, I’ve worked in corporate America for 11 years doing brand and onsite merchandising & marketing. Success at the time for me was doing what I’m told to do the right way, plus some. Read more>> 

Sarah Coleman

I’d love to speak on what success looks like and how there is no one right way to describe success–I believe success looks different for everyone and means something different to everyone. It is relative, like art. Read more>>

Mary Kutter

Something that’s crazy about the music industry is that no two stories about people “making it” look identical. But I have found a trend between the top people in the music world: They have a ton of resilience. They work super hard and just keep going, no matter how many people doubt them, tell them “no”, and no matter how many times they have to pivot. In my own life, if I hadn’t put my blinders on and worked as hard as I could, Read more>>

Vladimir Lebrun

First, you have to absolutely and unequivically love what you do so that it never feels like you’re working. Passion and confidence in your related skill or talent can take you far, you just have to take the time to intentionally manifest a legacy that can produce nothing but pure happiness for you and those around you. Read more>>

Shaybreion Williams

I believe a big part of success is trusting in yourself! We tend to second-guess ourselves in tough situations when it is in our control. Our anxiety starts to kick in and self-doubt starts to break down our confidence. To be successful, we have to learn to not only count on ourselves but to also count ourselves in that equation knowing we can make it happen with a little push and a little trust. Read more>>

Paris Cunningham

As a new business owner, I’ve learned how important it is to be consistent and persistent in order to build a successful business. You can have so many ideas and make so many great connections, which are also important pieces to having a successful business. However, you must be persistent in following up on those ideas/connections in order for them to yield the profit that may come from those assets. Also, in everything that you do in life, you must be consistent in order to increase your margin of success as opposed to failure or stagnancy. Read more>>

Sydney Carlino

Following your own blueprint. Once you can discover what you stand for, it requires you to choose a direction. Aim for what you believe in and what you are passionate about. Continue to reflect on where you are going and why it’s important to you. Enjoy the journey & help others along the way. Read more>>

Emilya Washeleski

Success can be defined in so many different way’s! It can manifest in forms of spiritual, emotional, and physical….success looks different on everybody. However to me, over the many years in different business endeavors from yoga, horses, holistic personal training, to modeling and acting there is one core truth and authentic pillar when it comes to success. It takes a level of creativity, a unwavering knowing of who you are and what you truly desire out of life, it takes a bit of grit & grace and a whole lot of commitment to mastering thyself and your craft. Read more>>

John Stewart 3

You have to be consistent. Consistency is key at all times. When you start to lack consistency you start to overthink and fall behind. You need the mindset to stay hungry hustle don’t stop. Read more>>

Byron Ford

Staying humble on your journey and therefore enjoying the journey. You can find success in the middle of whatever it is you’re doing before you even reach your end goal. Remaining in your purpose and focusing on Christ will make your ways prosperous and guarantee success. Read more>>

Whitney Cooley

In my line of work, I’ve learned that you have to create all of your successes. There is no such thing as a loss when you are the driving force behind your company. Being a Formulator means, that you have to invest and go through many trials before you can even get close to the final product that’ll be worthy of the standard you have set for your company. Through each trial you will learn, create samples, build new connections, create prototypes needed for promotions, and most importantly you will spend a LOT of money. Read more>>

Luis Soto-Rodriguez

To be successful can mean a few things for me depending on what kind of success we are working for. Success for me right now would be financial freedom. Because either we like it or not, money is very necessary, and we need it to literally survive in this country. I used to have a “for the love of the arts” kind of mentality and thought that it didn’t matter if I had financial freedom as long as I do what I love. Well, I don’t think like that anymore. Success is something we all want, and to achieve success we have to work smart, not hard. Read more>>

Zina Yono

I think it takes problem drive, solving skills, time management and organization to be successful. In order to be successful, you must be really willing to sacrifice a lot of time and energy to two achieve your dream. It doesn’t happen over night night in this instant gratification era we are living in. Read more>>

Meghan McIver

Success for me looks like a balanced schedule and a well-regulated nervous system. A successful week is one where I don’t feel stressed or overloaded and can move through my days at a pace that feels sustainable. I’ve gotten really good at scheduling myself in a way that works for me – I rarely work outside my home before noon and I never visit more than 3 clients or accounts a day. This kind of spaciousness allows me to stay inspired, creative, and connected to my long-term vision and goals. Palm + Pine is just two people, myself and my business partner, Lindsay. Read more>>

Jonathan Helmy

The long drive to success is exactly that, long! Much like an endless road-trip this journey will have many bumps, turns, breakdowns, maintenance required, and in the end the only person who can continue the journey is you. Success will not come overnight or to those who aren’t willing to make the journey. Being a self employed business owner I’ve learned over the years that if I want to be a success I have to open my heart and mind always, and trust me the food industry has taught me much patience. Read more>>

Chad Dyar

I think defining what makes someone successful first takes defining what “success” means to that individual. Personally, I define success as having deep, meaningful relationships with people around me, especially the people I care most about. For my work, I think success comes with the baseline of being able to do something I’m passionate about and pay my bills while doing so. Read more>>

Marina Colicci

I think success can be defined in a multitude of ways, and success can look different for each and every person! I don’t think there should be one blanket definition of what success looks like. In general. success for someone can be just getting out of bed every morning and tackling their day, even if they are experiencing significant hardship. Success to some people can also look like financial success such as hitting six or seven figures in their business. Read more>>

Sofia Muzio

The most importar thing that I found to be successful in all my projects was: PASSION. When you are asking to yourself “what i am doing here? Why I am not at home? What send me to do this?” That’s my alert so, stop, look at your present and future. Are you enjoying the most of the time? Where the time passes quickly, there is the place. Read more>>

Samuel Tacheny

Knowing that I don’t have it all figured out, but the belief that as long as I don’t stop, I’ll get closer to the answer. By nature, I really only see what’s in front of me, not what is ahead of me. I can be short sighted, but because I’m also a dreamer, sight is not the only sense I rely on. I also cannot rely on solely on me, myself, and I. I need the people around me, from the immediate relationships in my home, to the relationships that have not yet been cultivated. Read more>>

Keana Mumford

In order to be successful in my opinion, you have to stay consistent. You have to be willing to be open to new ideas and new ways. I also think its important to network, coming together with others and sharing ideas has been very helpful for me. Read more>>

Jocelyn Perez

To be successful in your career or in life in general, I believe it takes a lot of work, perseverance, and dedication. Everyone has a different view on success but in my perspective success means reaching the achievement of your goals. No matter if it’s a small term goal or a long term goal once reached it will bring the feeling of accomplishment and success. Read more>>

AGNIESZKA SYCEWICZ

I belive it takes a lot of courage to be sucsessful , Having no Fear And not being affraid of losses becouse every failure And every loss is just one step closer to Success. I learned trough Out my journey to Success how important it is to network with diffrent individuals to meet people of All cultures And buisness to strive to be in the right rooms even if it takes being the server ,only than you can open Your mind to new possibilities and oportunities you didnt know exsisted. Read more>>

Dominique Williams

I’ve learned it takes a lot i must say Consistency . I whole hearted believe you must stay consistent in order to be successful , staying committed when you want to give up & Believing in yourself . Make a plan and stick with it ! Read more>>

Rosanty Garcia

I think to be successful you need to be resilient in everything you do, no matter how small or big of a challenge faced, you have to keep going. I have endured many things in life that have felt like set backs, but the only thing that I know is that you have to roll with the punches, and face challenges head on to move through them. Another thing that it takes to be successful is to ask for help, whether you work alone or in a team you always need help to get things done. Read more>>

Javier Santana

Take risks, fail fast and be consistent. There’s no room for complacency when you’re an entrepreneur –– you have to always be learning, taking chances when others are scared to, and dust yourself off and keep going if and when you fail. The best lessons in business come from failures, so embrace them and learn from them. Read more>>

Kristine Harris

In my experience, being in fitness industry for the past 16 years, success has always been proving my clients with the best outcomes as they work towards their goals. I have worked with clients both in person and virtually. I have used my training in Pilates as well as my experience working in physical therapy as a trainer to develop effective programming for my specific niche of clients. Read more>>

Iyare’ Mack

I truly believe that your passion to reach your goals have to outweigh any fear of failure to be successful. You have to want something so bad that you’re determine to give it your all. In giving it your all, you must understand that there will be some stumbling blocks along the way. You need passion, persistence, determination, dedication, effort, and tunnel vision to turn those stumbling blocks into stepping stones. Read more>>