What is success?

I used to get so wrapped up in the process that I lost sight of the end goal. I wanted a big startup, to raise a lot of money from investors, to manage a large team, etc.

But when I really took a second to think about where I wanted to go and what I wanted my life to look like, I realized that wasn’t what I wanted at all. That was what everyone else was telling me I should want, but what I really wanted was freedom.

Everyone has their own vision for their life, and achieving that vision is what I would call success. My vision is centered around freedom.

I’m working towards freedom in a few forms. There’s creative freedom, which is the ability to choose what I work on, there’s financial freedom, which means being able to afford the things I want, or more importantly not stressing over financial obligations, and there’s freedom of time, which is the ability to choose how I spend my time, and to work when I want to work, not because I have to work.

I realized that all of the things that I used to work so hard for, a big startup, managing people, raising money, don’t help me achieve any of those goals. In fact they hinder me from achieving them. They just tack on more responsibilities, more stress and more obligations. They make me less free.

Those things may lead to more money, or to fame, or to power, and for some people that may be their vision of success. But it’s not mine.