How Do You Measure Success?

December 21, 2006 by Ben Yoskovitz 12 Comments

There are some obvious measures of success:

fame
fortune
power
groupies

And I certainly wouldn’t throw a stick at any of those, but there’s more to success than that. When it comes to blogging, some will say “success in blogging is tied to your influence.” Influence is a form of power. And although there’s no perfect way of measuring influence, when it comes to blogging things like readership, feed subscribers, comments, trackbacks, etc. do indicate influence.

More important than influence, and outside the realm of the blogging world, I want to measure success by the amount of opportunity I create for others.

Why would creating opportunities for others be a measure of success?

What you give, you get in return.
You learn a ton about social networks and the power of communities.
Helping is an active process, not passive. Success is active; you have to go out and get it, not sit back and wait for it to come.
Creatively, you’ll be bursting at the seams.
New opportunities will arise for your own projects and businesses.
It feels good, and success should feel good.

I’m not rich, powerful or famous, and there are no groupies tracking my every move.

But in the last few months I’ve worked on helping others with their projects and ideas. I’ve made it clear I’m open to helping and creating opportunities for others through my growing network of contacts, business experience, etc. My efforts have already been returned in kind, and I have no doubt good things are on the horizon. I’ve learned an immense amount, and interacted with some amazing people. And business-wise I’ve got my hands in more projects now than ever!

Creating opportunities for others is easier than you realize and it should be a huge part of anyone’s success.

This post is part of my Group Writing Project, answering the question, “What I Learned in 2006?” You can participate too! Until Sunday, December 24th, write a post answering that question. Link back to Instigator Blog and let me know. I’ll donate $5 to charity and you can win some great prizes.

Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed so you can receive regular content from this blog.

Emmanuel

Yeah… you hit this on the head. I have always known that God will make happen for you whatsoever you make happen for others. This has formed the basis for my action.

The more I commit to helping others fulfill their dreams, the easier it has become for me to achieve my goals.
Emmanuel

Yeah… you hit this on the head. I have always known that God will make happen for you whatsoever you make happen for others. This has formed the basis for my action.

The more I commit to helping others fulfill their dreams, the easier it has become for me to achieve my goals.
Chris Cree

Ben, I’ve always been fascinated with influence and felt that was a very good metric of personal success. I like the way you have shifted focus on that. The beauty of your approach is that the more people you create opportunities for, the more influence you will end up having anyway. I suspect it will be a very big byproduct of all you do.

Merry Christmas!
Chris Cree

Ben, I've always been fascinated with influence and felt that was a very good metric of personal success. I like the way you have shifted focus on that. The beauty of your approach is that the more people you create opportunities for, the more influence you will end up having anyway. I suspect it will be a very big byproduct of all you do.

Merry Christmas!
Ben Yoskovitz

What I enjoy almost more than anything is when people think of me as someone they should speak to about their idea. That’s awesome. “Talk to Ben, he may have some insight or people to connect you with.”

That’s creating opportunity for others. That’s influence.

It’s happened a few times this year. I hope it happens much more often in 2007.
Ben Yoskovitz

What I enjoy almost more than anything is when people think of me as someone they should speak to about their idea. That's awesome. “Talk to Ben, he may have some insight or people to connect you with.”

That's creating opportunity for others. That's influence.

It's happened a few times this year. I hope it happens much more often in 2007.
BP

Plz give provide sufficient information that could pacify the reader.
BP

Plz give provide sufficient information that could pacify the reader.
Ben Yoskovitz

BP – I don’t follow. Sorry…

I’m happy to help if you have a specific question though!
Ben Yoskovitz

BP – I don't follow. Sorry…

I'm happy to help if you have a specific question though!
Louis Vuitton Handbags

helping and creating opportunities for others through my growing network of contacts, business experience, etc. My efforts have already been returned in kind, and I have no doubt good things are on the
Louis Vuitton Handbags

helping and creating opportunities for others through my growing network of contacts, business experience, etc. My efforts have already been returned in kind, and I have no doubt good things are on the

Instigator Blog

Lean Analytics, startups, angel investing, product management and more!

How Do You Measure Success?

More important than influence, and outside the realm of the blogging world, I want to measure success by the amount of opportunity I create for others.

Ben Yoskovitz

Buy Lean Analytics

Get updates