What does it mean to be successful?
Success can mean many things depending on who you ask. To some it can mean wealth and prosperity, to others it can mean being happy with your work. Denzel Washington once said “Success? I don’t know what that word means. I’m happy. But success, that goes back to what in somebody’s eyes success means. For me, success is inner peace. That’s a good day for me.” Whatever it means to you do your best to achieve your goals.
If you want to be successful in most things effort is likely going to be a key ingredient. Tavares Foster, the CEO of Quality Key’ once said “Ultimately music is something you have to practice consistently to be good at it. It’s more of a hands-on experience. And he is absolutely right. If you want to be good at almost anything you are going to need to practice.
Now let’s talk about satisfaction with your work. There is a Japanese proverb that goes ‘a man away from home need feel no shame.’ If you are putting your work or yourself out there, even if it is met with negative reviews you don’t need to feel ashamed about it even the most successful celebrities had down moments or times their performances weren’t well received, but the mark of a true winner is not if they can keep going when things are going right, but if they can keep going when everything is going wrong.
The simple truth is you’re going to fail, or not do perfectly in everything, that’ part of life. However, if you fail does that mean you didn’t succeed? You still went out and did what you set out to do, that in and of itself is succeeding. Go out there, and learn from your failures and mistakes, it’s the only way we truly grow. The more experience you have the fewer mistakes you will make.