What is success?

By Catherine Morgan, Executive Advisor, PEO

As time passes and we transition through life’s stages, we all inevitably ask ourselves the big question. Are we being successful?  What is success anyway? How can success in the work place be matched with personal relationships and family?

Recently I had the opportunity to speak with a group of amazing women about success and all its intricacies.  The venue was a breakfast for Women in Leadership and Technology sponsored by the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners. I hoped that when I finished that some of them would be moved to join a peer environment after the talk. In addition to a strong trade group like the Channel Partners, women especially should consider a peer environment like Presidents of Enterprising Organizations (PEO); it is the last channel on the dial of career success. Most leadership groups like PEO welcome executives who are looking to develop as leaders.

Success can mean, according to the dictionary, a level of social status and the achievement of an objective/goal. It is the opposite of failure.  Success does not necessarily equate with happiness. But shouldn’t it be the ultimate measure of success?

My career for the last 25 years has been a voyage of transitions, risks and rewards.  I’ve been in sales and marketing roles at IBM, Compaq, HP and T4G. At HP I started as a product manager and worked my way up to heading up the Corporate Printer division. I travelled a lot; I was running a $43 million dollar business unit.  I had two children at the time and life was good….In fact it felt great.   During the pregnancy with my third, travel was getting harder and I started wanting more time with my children.  I was torn every morning. So I left, gave up the title, the salary and the perks and moved my family to Costa Rica for a year.

The Costa Rica year had its ups and downs….we felt isolated, completely lucky at others, we  got bored at times…We had some amazing adventures, some long days…I don’t think I had had such unstructured time since childhood but there were days that stretched on……   It was a personal education for all of us.

Upon returning I came across PEO’s president, Leon Goren. PEO, a membership organization, I jumped at a chance to work with the organization and have been working as an Executive Advisor for four years now.  I work with the VP level of executive.   It has been extremely gratifying to see some of my VP’s step into the CEO shoes or decide they are not willing to take that on. My work is all about exploring what success means in its broadest and best sense.

What I have learned through this experience is that we all have a right to define our success in very personal terms.  You have to ask yourself: Did the last week or month of my life feel like how I want to be living my life? Am I doing what I really want to do with my life? Success that lasts is all about aligning meaning, thought, and action.

I mentioned the following pathways that one can use to explore success:

• Create your own vision of success
• Be mindful of how you spend your time – time is finite
• Be grateful – for yourself and those around you
• Health – stress can cut years from your life

Success comes from exploring all of life’s potential from the context of your best self. As Mark Twain said so memorably: “Years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do .. than by the ones you did do.”

The successful people who attended that breakfast were certainly aligned with that truth; all had achieved a great deal. But even more than economic success, they were participants in their community. Clearly, they understood that networking outside your organization – through charities, associations and panels was life and career-enhancing. It was wonderful to share my story and experiences with them.