Why Success Shouldn’t Determine Identity
1. “Success” isn’t single dimensional and is never as it seems
As I noted in some previous ramblings, a lot of what is called “success” by entrepreneurs is linked to external resources that helped them get there in the first place. A father with connections for instance can be the invisible life blood of the birth of a business. The circumstantial nature of success in business is surely not the only contributing factor, but it’s an undeniably (and seldom mentioned) powerful one. Bootstrapping, angel investing, and networking are far from an objective test of one’s skill. What may be “success” to one person may not be for another. If we were 100% transparent about our circumstances, we could have a clearer and more equitable view on what “success” actually is. What is valued externally is antithetical to what must be kept under wraps – at least from a legal point of view.
When I was at a business program at Queen’s, a very hot topic of discussion that was taught to us was that there is sometimes a dissonance between the long company goals of the founders of the company and the pursuit and infatuation of shorter term growth metrics.
On a simpler note, what may be seen as moonshot success externally could be viewed as a deliberate set of conflicting moves. Also, what is seen as a vanity metric can be viewed as a critical one to the right person.
2. Failure and success vary depending on your outlook
The tasks that growth hackers take on can range from brilliant online marketing to tactics that blur ethical lines. Shortcuts can include hacking one’s way instantly to thousands of new subscribers or users, in order to create the illusion of viability.
Some start business with the goal to exit and sell it early. Others intend to take it to their death. Another segment may take the learning experience and apply it intrapreneurially, other apply business knowledge to consulting, affiliate marketing, mentorship, or maybe even in starting a family. Not to mention they can jump back and forth between business and their other activities. This can allow them to bring their lessons with them into new areas. Similar to the last point, “success” shouldn’t determine identity because success itself is never a single-sided narrative.
3. It may hinder you from having a consistent self-outlook
Oftentimes, because you failed, it doesn’t mean that you’re a failure; it simply means you failed at your task. Likewise, if you succeed at something you merely succeeded at something calling yourself a success instantly may beg the question: what would you call yourself if the factors that led to your success didn’t align and you missed the mark by an inch?
My point is that achievement, while unanimous with the human spirit, doesn’t perpetuate when your effort perpetuates. There are ebbs and flows because everybody makes mistakes. It’s part of growth. Startups being known to fail 90% of the time and learning from failure is a widespread mantra discussed throughout Silicon Valley and tech bubbles.
Taking a step back and abstracting away from your professional life, you can give yourself breathing room to evaluate your decisions as-is, without either feeling sorry for yourself, or pumping your ego.
My suggestion is to keep achievement as a byproduct of identity not a determinant of it. How do I keep my identity? Still figuring it out, but my faith and learning from others are two things that I’m planted on.
So usually we do this:
How does this look instead?
Another reason why collectivist cultures do well as people is because they follow more of the latter.
What do you think?
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Author: Natu Myers (Website: Natumyers.com)
Natu is a cryptocurrency investor and software engineer who is experienced in building large scale applications. He built Innovator.Supply, an HR recruiting software for VR, AR, and chatbot enthusiasts. This was followed his other service, Hypetroop Market. He has a fitness page on Instagram. Stemming from his time at Queen’s, he was a defensive lineman on the Queen’s Gaels football team. Being a multipotentialite, he finished a business incubator program after graduating, launched his own album on iTunes, and he stays up to date industry-penetrating software startups and crytocurrency investment methods while gaining IT experience.
