Success

Success is not subjective. Success is defined as the creation of value for those around you. We should all aspire to be successful, and figure out how to build skillsets or products that create the most value for those around us.

It can be tempting to think of success as a subjective metric. This can be because success is influenced by context. A shareholder could define the success of a business as an increase in the share price. A CEO could define success as an increase in the profitability or the growth of a company. A customer could define success as a business devilering the value that it promised.

Success to an individual could be supporting a family, getting a promotion, building something cool. It could be some function of all of the above. A parent views their child as successful based on their own personal metrics of success. The classic trope of the comedian and their disappointed parents, is only because their parent(s) didn't define success in the same way. Sometimes the parents adapt and reimagine what success can look like.

How do so many different people have such different ideas about what success can look like? Is there a unifying thread that can help pinpoint what "true" success really is?

The unifying theme is in value. Someone (including a corporate entity) is truly successful if they can deliver value to those around them. The more value they can deliver, the more successful they are. This could be a lot of value to a few people (like a surgeon), or a little bit of value to a lot of people (such as a picture sharing app like instagram). The subjectivity comes in when you try and measure value. Value can be defined numerically with money. Ideally, if you added the most value to the world then you would be remunerated the most. Unfortunately, this is often not the case but it is directionally correct.

There are two common misunderstandings that stem from the above. Firstly, people conflate success with financial gain because it is easy to measure. Secondly, people conflate "status careers" with success because it is easy to observe. Scammers appear successful because they can be rich (or pretend to be) but this is an illusion because they deliver very little value to those around them. It is unnervingly common for people to obtain a high status career or position and benefit but deliver very little value. Examples include corrupt cops, fake doctors or "cosmetic" surgeons, and politicians that only deliver value for their major donors instead of their constituents.

The most valuable thing a government can do is control and legally prohibit behaviours the are remunerated with money but add no value. The most obvious are criminals that steal property or defraud other members of their community. It is also clear when you start considering characters like Elizabeth Holmes or SBF. In any event, arguably the most important roles of government are to firstly provide and safe, fair and understandable enviroment to conduct transactions at any scale. After that the second most important role of government is to ensure that financial remuneration matches value creation.