Sitemaps
Should Kids Follow in Our Founder Footsteps?
The Evolution of Entry Level Workers
Assume Everyone Will Leave in Year One
Stop Listening to Investors
Was Mortgaging My Life Worth it?
What's My Startup Worth in an Acquisition?
When Our Ambition is Our Enemy
Are Startups in a "Silent Recession"?
The 5 Types of Startup Funding
What Is Startup Funding?
Do Founders Deserve Their Profit?
Michelle Glauser on Diversity and Inclusion
The Utter STUPIDITY of "Risking it All"
Committees Are Where Progress Goes to Die
More Money (Really Means) More Problems
Why Most Founders Don't Get Rich
Investors will be Obsolete
Why is a Founder so Hard to Replace?
We Can't Grow by Saying "No"
Do People Really Want Me to Succeed?
Is the Problem the Player or the Coach?
Will Investors Bail Me Out?
The Value of Actually Getting Paid
Why do Founders Suck at Asking for Help?
Wait a Minute before Giving Away Equity
You Only Think You Work Hard
SMALL is the New Big — Embracing Efficiency in the Age of AI
The 9 Best Growth Agencies for Startups
This is BOOTSTRAPPED — 3 Strategies to Build Your Startup Without Funding
Never Share Your Net Worth
A Steady Hand in the Middle of the Storm
Risk it All vs Steady Paycheck
How About a Startup that Just Makes Money?
How to Recruit a Rockstar Advisor
Why Having Zero Experience is a Huge Asset
My Competitor Got Funded — Am I Screwed?
The Hidden Treasure of Failed Startups
If It Makes Money, It Makes Sense
Why do VCs Keep Giving Failed Founders Money?
$10K Per Month isn't Just Revenue — It's Life Support
The Ridiculous Spectrum of Investor Feedback
Startup CEOs Aren't Really CEOs
Series A, B, C, D, and E Funding: How It Works
Best Pitch Decks Ever: The Most Successful Fundraising Pitches You Need to Know
When to Raise Funds
Why Aren't Investors Responding to Me?
Should I Regret Not Raising Capital?
Unemployment Cases — Why I LOOOOOVE To Win Them So Much.
How Much to Pay Yourself
Heat-Seeking Missile: WePay’s Journey to Product-Market Fit — Interview with Rich Aberman, Co-Founder of Wepay
The R&D technique for startups: Rip off & Duplicate
Why Some Startups Win.
Chapter #1: First Steps To Validate Your Business Idea
Product Users, Not Ideas, Will Determine Your Startup’s Fate
Drop Your Free Tier
Your Advisors Are Probably Wrong
Growth Isn't Always Good
How to Shut Down Gracefully
How Does My Startup Get Acquired?
Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?
How to Pick the Wrong Co-Founder
Staying Small While Going Big
Investors are NOT on Our Side of the Table
Who am I Really Competing Against?
Why Can't Founders Replace Themselves?
Actually, We Have Plenty of Time
Quitting vs Letting Go
How Startups Actually Get Bought
What if I'm Building the Wrong Product?
Are Founders Driven by Fear or Greed?
Why I'm Either Working or Feeling Guilty
Startup Financial Assumptions
Why Every Kid Should be a Startup Founder
We Only Have to be Right Once
If a Startup Sinks, Founders Go Down With it
Founder Success: We Need a Strict Definition of Personal Success
Is Quiet Quitting a Problem at Startup Companies?
Founder Exits are Hard Work and Good Fortune, Not "Good Luck"
Finalizing Startup Projections
All Founders are Beloved In Good Times
Our Startup Culture of Entitlement
The Bullshit Case for Raising Capital
How do We Manage Our Founder Flaws?
What If my plan for retirement is "never retire"?
Startup Failure is just One Chapter in Founder Life
6 Similarities between Startup Founders and Pro Athletes
All Founders Make Bad Decisions — and That's OK
Startup Board Negotiations: How do I tell the board I need a new deal?
Founder Sacrifice — At What Point Have I Gone Too Far?
Youth Entrepreneurship: Can Middle Schoolers be Founders?
Living the Founder Legend Isn't so Fun
Why Do VC Funded Startups Love "Fake Growth?"
How Should I Share My Wealth with Family?
How Many Deaths Can a Startup Survive?
This is Probably Your Last Success
Why Do We Still Have Full-Time Employees?
The Case Against Full Transparency
Should I Feel Guilty for Failing?
Always Take Money off the Table
Founder Impostor Syndrome Never Goes Away

Founder Success: We Need a Strict Definition of Personal Success

Wil Schroter

Founder Success: We Need a Strict Definition of Personal Success

As Founders, we spend an inordinate amount of time setting and pursuing goals, yet the ones that truly matter — the ones that affect us personally — are often amorphous. If we're spending every waking moment working toward a goal, it stands to reason that our goals should have an insane amount of fidelity.

Where Does it all Start?

I remember my early years as an entrepreneur. I had a lot of ideas about what success meant for me and for the company that I was building. But, it wasn't until I had spent several years working on my business that I finally realized why felt unsatisfied.

I didn't have a clear definition of success.

This is a problem that plagues many entrepreneurs who want to build something great, but don't know how to define success in their industry or business. It's easy to get caught up in all the hype and excitement around startups, but without having a clear definition of success, you'll never achieve it.

A successful startup founder is only successful but their own definition. Angel investors, venture capitalists, friends, or family's opinions matter not.

What Is Success?

The first step to defining success is recognizing that there are different types of success — both personal and professional — and that each type has its own set of criteria for measuring progress toward your goals (or lack thereof).

When I started thinking about this topic, I realized that I have never really defined what personal success means to me. And I think that’s because it’s such a slippery term.

I wrote down all of the things that come to mind when I think about what it means to me:

  • Being happy with my life and the choices that I make

  • Making progress toward my goals and reaching milestones along the way

  • Being in a relationship with someone who makes me happy and supports my goals

  • Having fun with friends and family and having fun in general

  • Not having to answer to anyone but myself

It's not easy to define because there are so many factors involved, for example:

  • Psychological factors like confidence and inner peace

  • Financial factors like net worth and income

  • Social factors like popularity and social status

  • Spiritual factors like purpose in life and self-awareness

  • Physical factors like fitness level and health

  • Relationship-related factors like marriage and kids

And various other factors weigh in how we view what success is for ourselves as Founders, as well as human beings.

When you have a clear idea of what success looks like for you personally, then it becomes easier to achieve that success. You can focus on those things that will help you get there faster.

Having a clear vision of your personal success helps you create an environment in which you can live this way every day.

Most successful startups by definition will see business growth but most successful founders will feel that way

We Tend to Suck at Goal Definition

If you ask a startup Founder what their goals for the startup are, they may say something like "To sell for a billion dollars!" But that's a pointless goal unless that Founder needs exactly a billion dollars (or a percentage of it) to achieve their goals. Also, if you have a plan for spending a billion dollars please call me — I want to hang out.

A better goal would be "I need $281,520 to pay off my student loan debt, put money down on a house, and put $50k in the bank for emergencies."

That type of goal has a specific definition and a deliberate purpose which allows us to make tons of decisions based on that outcome. For example, we probably don't need to take on a ton of investment to achieve that outcome or build a giant company. We can hit that goal with way less complication.

Aside from business partners, no one else has the initial vision of the business owner. Never giving up on that vision is what makes a successful founder.

Goals Should Be About More Than Money

Money is a very binary goal, but we should also be specific about what our non-numeric goals are. For example, we all say that we want "more freedom" (it's why we started a company!) but do we ever really define that freedom?

That freedom may mean that we don't ever want to answer to anyone ever again (my favorite), but we should be specific about who we don't want to answer to. Are we talking about investors, customers, employees (all of the above)?

I personally never wanted to answer to a Board again (so we don't have one). I didn't want to deal with huge enterprise customers that could crush my business (so we don't have those).  The list goes on. By making goals very specific we start to create a tight roadmap toward real success.

Is there a "Secret Formula"?

I've been fortunate to have many great mentors and advisors over the years, and what I've learned from them is that there's no single formula for success. There are many factors that go into building a company — from finding product-market fit to hiring great people — but if you're wondering how to make it as a successful startup founder, there are two things you need:

1) A clear definition of success (personally)

2) The willingness to work hard and hustle for it (possibly every day!)

The first part is easy — define your own version of success and then make sure you're working towards it every day. In fact, I think it's so important that every founder should have their own definition of success in writing. For me, my definition looks something like this:

"If we can build a sustainable business with happy customers who love our products and services, then I'll consider myself successful."

That may seem like an obvious statement, but the truth is that many founders don't have a clear idea of what makes them successful — or what they want out of life in general. So starting simple is what many successful entrepreneurs do while they're still "finding their way."

Successful founders successful founders Successful founders successful founders

The More We Tighten Up Our Goals, The Easier They Become

This is counterintuitive because we normally think that goals are supposed to stretch us, to make us reach beyond what we can do at first. But when you take a step back and look at successful startup founders' lives, you'll find that this isn't true.

It's actually the opposite: The more clearly defined and specific your goals are, the easier it becomes for you to achieve them.

It turns out, the hardest goals to reach are those with the least definition. It's like when we say "I want to be happy" — because in and of itself it lacks definition. On the other hand, as we distill our goals into highly specific outcomes, it turns out they are often way easier to achieve.

A great method I've personally found is to not only make them highly specific but make them incremental. Instead of saying "I want to lose 40 pounds" try "I want to lose 1 pound by Monday." Smaller, focused goals have the highest chance of success. And if we're going to be spending an insane amount of time pursuing goals, doesn't it make sense that we invest some serious time refining them?

In Case You Missed It

How Do I Design My Startup Around My Life? There’s very little preventing us from designing our startups around our life goals. It starts with us being very clear about what we want to achieve and then taking clear, small steps toward those outcomes.

7 Habits Of Highly Successful Entrepreneurs From ice cream powerhouses to e-commerce pros, here are some traits from great founders that I’ve observed and tried to emulate throughout my 20-year career as an entrepreneur.

How Much Should I Be Working? (podcast) While there's truth to the assumption that more hours equal more growth, we'll explore how it benefits to think quality and not quantity when it comes to your weekly punch card.

Find this article helpful?

This is just a small sample! Register to unlock our in-depth courses, hundreds of video courses, and a library of playbooks and articles to grow your startup fast. Let us Let us show you!

Submission confirms agreement to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Already a member? Login

Aubrey Miracle

yes sure your goal will be achieve

Reply4 years ago

Errors doc

tHANKS

Register to join the discussion.

Already a member? Login

Create Free Account