Before you continue reading, you MUST watch this video:

Hands down, this video motivates me more than anything I’ve ever watched (probably why I’m working on my second straight blog post). How many people have you met that have said “I don’t want to be successful”? Probably not a lot, if any, right? Unfortunately, some people never make it to what themselves, or others, might define as success. I’m not going to focus this post on what success is, because it is in the eye of the beholder. Just like they say ‘love is blind,’ success is invisible. There is no tangible way to measure success for the general public. It is on a person by person basis that success is measured. So, that is what you must do: define the scale for your measurement.

The video I had you watch probably got you pumped up, or at the very least, got you thinking about what you want to achieve in your life. And that’s the point; you need to think about it. I could go on and on about how to stay motivated (and I’m sure I’ll write posts later about it), and how to achieve success. But that’s why I showed you the video; it did the work for me on this one. I am now writing to help you discover what it is that you truly want to accomplish, and how you define success for your own life.

I’m sure it’s frustrating when you see people who have it ‘all figured out,’ isn’t it? They have their 5 year, 10 year, and 20 year plans all mapped out. “In year 13, I plan on having kids. In year 23, I plan on travelling to Greece.” Sounds great, huh? But a plan is NOT a definition of success. To define success, you do not need to know certain milestones, certain ages to do things, even a certain job to attain. Those things will come, honestly. What you need to do is figure out: do you even want a job? Do you want to work for a company or for yourself? Do you want to volunteer? Do you want a family? Do you need money, or are you OK with scraping by? These questions and more will help refine the idea of success for you.

Let me tell you about my path so far: when I was young, I was absolutely positive I wanted to be a paleontologist because I loved dinosaurs. When I started to grow up, and realize that it would be nothing like being Dr. Grant in Jurassic Park, I started to rethink that plan. Once I got into high school, I started to develop a great interest in aircraft, and that influenced my decision to go to Cal Poly as an Aerospace Engineer. Well, after a year of that, I decided that I wanted to be a physical therapist (mainly because my girlfriend at the time was studying to do the same thing). It only took me another year of courses I had no interest in to realize I needed a change. I then selected Biomedical Engineering. I’ll spare you with details and just tell you that another year passed, and another wrong decision. At this point, I was at the end of my third year of college, and had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do. I had no concept of what success was going to be for me in the future.

Then I started to ‘soul search,’ as they call it. I really delved deep into what excited me, what I was truly passionate about, and what I could see myself doing for years to come. That’s when it hit me: I wanted to be in business! But more than that, I wanted to someday run my own business. What kind of business? I didn’t know… and I still really don’t. I know that I want to help people. I know that I am passionate about entrepreneurship, and it gets me excited to see other companies flourish when they started from scratch. I know that I want to combine those two passions in some way and maybe eventually have an investment firm that helps start-up companies grow. But it took me a long time to come to the realization of what my passions are and how to effectively use them. So, what I have done is start working for a company that I believe in, that was started by one man and a dream: to bring solar energy to the world. Working for this company, even for a short time, has helped me further develop my ideas of success: when I do eventually start my own business, I want to focus on green industry. I want to do things that are good for the planet; because that will ensure the success of not only myself, but also of those living here on this planet with me.

So as you can see, not even I have an exact definition of what I want my success to be. But I know certain things that I want to be involved with, and I know how I want to feel at the end of each day. Those are the things you must search for in yourself. It is then that you can find out what will make you feel ‘successful.’ Like Drake said, “I just wanna be successful.” For him, it’s the money, the cars and the clothes… the ho’s I suppose. Whatever it is for you, find it, and do whatever you can to make it yours. Make sure you want it. Want it more than breathing, more than partying, more than anything. Ask yourself, how bad do you want success?