When Success Stops Feeling Like Success: Redefining What It Means to Make It

It looked like getting into the rooms I once dreamed about entering It looked like seeing companies I admired on my ramp233sumamp233 watching projects I39d worked on reach millions of people earning recognition for work I was proud of and building a career in television and media that a younger version of me would have been amazed to know was waiting for himAnd the truth is I loved itI loved the creativity the energy and being surrounded by people who could take an idea scribbled on a page and somehow turn it into something the world could see I loved knowing that my work mattered that my perspective had value and that I had earned my place in an industry I had spent years working towardSuccess gave me something else too freedom It expanded my world It allowed me to travel support people I loved experience new places and enjoy the kind of independence that comes from years of building a career and a life for yourselfFor a long time that was exactly what I wantedUntil one day it wasn39tNot because the career stopped mattering Not because I suddenly became ungrateful for everything it had given me And not because I stopped being ambitiousSomething much simpler happenedI changedAnd eventually I had to ask myself a question I hadn39t anticipatedWhat happens when the definition of success that got you here is no longer the definition capable of taking you where you want to goThe Question Behind quotWhat39s NextquotMedia teaches you to think about what39s nextIn many ways that39s one of the things I love most about it Our industry is driven by curiosity the next idea the next project the next platform the next opportunity the next way audiences will experience storiesThat same instinct inevitably follows us into our careersFor years I understood the formula Work hard Learn Become better Take the opportunity Earn trust Get into the room Once you39re there figure out how to get into the next oneThere is nothing wrong with that formula It took me places I once couldn39t imagine goingBut eventually quotWhat39s nextquot stopped being enoughI found myself asking something slightly differentWhat do I actually want nextThat one word changes everythingquotWhat39s nextquot asks us to identify the next logical step quotWhat do I want nextquot asks whether the logical step is still the right oneAnd that requires something ambition alone cannot provideIt requires selfknowledgeBecause at some point we have to ask ourselves How much of our ambition is actually intention and how much of it is simply momentumWe Define Success Before We Really Know OurselvesMost of us begin constructing our definitions of success remarkably earlyWe decide what kind of career we want what we39d like to accomplish and what kind of person we hope to become long before we39ve accumulated enough life experience to understand what will ultimately make that life meaningfulAt 22 success might simply mean getting the opportunity Later it might mean leadership creative ownership greater influence or finally being recognized for work you39ve spent years perfectingBut life keeps happening while we39re building our careersWe fall in love We lose people We move We fail We succeed We become responsible for others We discover parts of ourselves we didn39t know existed We learn what gives us energy and what quietly takes it awayEventually if we39re paying attention the person pursuing the dream may no longer be exactly the same person who created itBut perhaps the danger isn39t changing the dream Perhaps it39s never stopping long enough to notice that we39ve changedThat doesn39t make the dream wrongIt means the dream did its jobIt got us somewhereAnd from that new vantage point we39re allowed to decide where we39d like to go nextGratitude Doesn39t Require PermanenceThis may be one of the hardest ideas for ambitious people to acceptSometimes we confuse gratitude with obligationIf an industry gave us extraordinary opportunities questioning our relationship with it can feel as though we39re diminishing everything it gave us If a job once represented a dream changing our minds can feel suspiciously like failureWe can become so determined to prove that our sacrifices were worth it that we keep sacrificing long after we39ve received what we came forI39ve had to rethink thatI can be profoundly grateful for my career and still allow myself to evolve beyond the version of success I once associated with itThose ideas are not contradictoryMy years in media taught me how to communicate collaborate create lead improvise solve problems and trust my instincts They showed me what happens when talented people rally around an idea and decide to make it realMost importantly they showed me what I was capable ofI don39t want to erase any of thatI want to build from itPerhaps that39s the difference between running away from a chapter and allowing that chapter to become part of a larger storyThe Industry Has Changed Maybe Our Definition of Success Should TooMedia itself increasingly reflects this kind of reinventionThe traditional career ladder still exists and for many professionals it remains an extraordinary path But it now sits alongside possibilities that previous generations of media professionals could not have imagined in quite the same wayExecutives become entrepreneurs Journalists become podcasters Producers become consultants Creators build companies Industry veterans become educators advisors authors and speakers People move between organizations industries platforms and even countries while carrying their expertise with themBut there is a larger shift underneath all of this that I find particularly interestingThe way we build media careers has changed faster than the way we measure whether those careers are successfulFor generations professional progress was relatively easy to visualize because the architecture of a career was easier to recognize You entered an organization developed expertise assumed greater responsibility and ideally continued moving upward Progress had a visible directionBut if the architecture of a career has changed why are we still using an old scoreboard to determine whether someone is winningToday39s media professional may build something far less linear and no less consequentialA producer might consult between projects while developing an independent series An executive might advise emerging companies while teaching the next generation of talent A journalist might move between reporting podcasting authorship and speaking without any one role becoming the definitive description of who they are professionallyIn that environment perhaps the question is no longer simply how far someone has climbedMaybe we also need to ask how effectively they39ve learned to carry their expertise with themThe most valuable thing we accumulate over the course of a career may not ultimately be a titleIt may be the combination of judgment relationships perspective credibility and skill that remains ours regardless of the organization printed beneath our nameA career no longer has to move in one direction to be meaningfulPerhaps success doesn39t eitherAmbition Was Never the ProblemThis is the part I don39t want to lose in conversations about redefining successI am still ambitiousVery much soI still love the satisfaction of getting something done I love taking charge when something needs to happen connecting dots solving problems and watching an idea become realI still want to create meaningful work contribute to important conversations and enter rooms I haven39t entered yetI haven39t become less interested in successI39ve become more interested in what success makes possibleOver time I39ve become increasingly drawn to one measure in particular agencyThe ability to choose work that excites me To say no when something isn39t aligned To follow an unexpected curiosity To create something simply because I believe it deserves to exist To have meaningful time for the people and experiences that matter beyond workMaybe one of the greatest privileges success can eventually provide isn39t statusIt39s choiceProfessional credibility can create opportunities Experience can create perspective Creative freedom gives us room to tell stories that might otherwise remain untold And the things we accomplish can give us the ability to create opportunities for people beyond ourselvesNone of that requires abandoning ambitionIt requires giving ambition a purposeWhat Is Your Career Making PossibleWe spend enormous amounts of time asking people what they want to becomeMaybe we should spend more time asking what they want their careers to make possibleA career can create independence creativity generosity leadership impact and access to people places and ideas that fundamentally change how we understand the worldBut a career is still one part of a lifePerhaps one of the responsibilities that comes with experience is periodically asking whether the career we39re building is still serving the life we39re becomingNot the life we were expected to wantNot the life that looks most impressive from the outsideThe one we actually want to wake up and liveYou Are Allowed to Become Someone ElseI think about younger versions of myself differently nowI don39t look back at the person who wanted those titles opportunities and accomplishments and think he had the wrong ideaQuite the oppositeI39m grateful he wanted them badly enough to pursue themHis ambition got me here His willingness to work opened doors His curiosity introduced me to worlds I hadn39t yet experienced His courage gave me evidence that I could figure things outBut honoring that version of myself doesn39t mean I have to remain him foreverYou are allowed to outgrow a goal without disrespecting the person who once wanted itChanging your mind doesn39t erase what came before it Neither does reinvention require abandoning everything you39ve learnedStarting a new chapter doesn39t require burning the pages that came before itMaybe Making It Was Never the DestinationI39ve spent much of my professional life in an industry obsessed with what39s nextI still love that about mediaI hope I always willBut these days I39m equally interested in another questionWhat39s worth pursuingNot simply what opportunity comes next but what deserves my time my energy and my ambitionThere cannot be a universal answerFor one person success may mean becoming CEO For another building a company It might mean creating something nobody else believes in yet teaching telling stories or having enough control over your time to be home for dinnerIt might be some combination of all of those thingsThe point isn39t to want lessIt39s to make sure the things we39re working so hard to achieve still belong to usFor years I thought making it meant arriving somewhereNow I39m beginning to wonder whether making it is something else entirelyMaybe success isn39t a destination we finally reachMaybe quotmaking itquot is developing enough courage selfknowledge and freedom to choose our lives more intentionallyBecause in the end our accomplishments were never supposed to become our livesThey were supposed to help us build onePosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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When Success Stops Feeling Like Success: Redefining What It Means to Make It

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Kevin Abreu

From GLP-1 to Baseball Caps: What Our Appetites and Identities Reveal About Us - By Jack Myers

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