I am currently working on my 10k hours as a writer hopefully I’ll get good at it someday.

As for the definition of success, for me it is about what choices you have. If you have the choice to start a large, profitable company and that appeals to you – that is success. If you choose to have a very simple life without much money – that is success, too, as long as it was a choice. If you have a simple life without much money, but you dream of having more wealth/power, you aren’t going to feel successful.

I think part of the problem in the U.S. is that children are taught that they shouldn’t want money. That money isn’t important. That people who have money or own corporations are greedy and evil (like Scrooge). I hope to find a way to teach my children that money is important – not as important and family, friends and happiness – but important none-the-less.

About leveling the playing field – this really starts before school age. The best investment would be in parent training/education. When I was studying for my teaching credential, we learned that one of the biggest differences between the affluent kids who do well in school and the less affluent who don’t do well is the amount of time their parents talk to them. Just talk! It doesn’t cost anything! But that interaction and exposure to language has a big effect on later success in school.

I view success as a process. Success is not about the past or the present. It’s about the future. Earl Nightingale said that success is the progressive realization of a goal (paraphrased). I have adopted this as my personal definition of success because I am so far from achieving most of my long-term goals.

I do not come from a background like Bill Gates did. My dad was a fireman for the first half of my life and then a farmer. My mom was either at home or worked part-time. I was the first person in my immediate family to get a four-year college degree. We were financially OK, but far from anyone’s definition of “privileged”.

My goals stand in stark contrast to this upbringing. I have multiple lifetime goals, but I’ll just discuss my professional one: I want to be a CIO of a major company.

The problem is that I am not even close to achieving this goal. I am currently 23 years old and don’t work for a major company. If you look at my life, and compare it to my goal, it is safe to say that I am a failure. I have not achieved my goal. But I do not feel that I am a failure because I feel that I am on my way.

I work at the college that I got my B.S. degree from. It’s not a major corporation, but this job is positioning me well to achieve my goal. Even though I am only 23, I am working in IT, I have had 3 promotions in four years, I am in my second supervisory job and I have a chance to attain a managerial job next year. I am gaining experience that I must have before I can achieve my professional goal of being a CIO. I’m not there yet, and I have many, many years ahead of me before I can get there, but I am hanging in with this job because it is getting me one step closer to my goal.

So to me, success is still years away, but that doesn’t make me feel unsuccessful now. Because I am progressively realizing my goals, I feel like a success today even though I still have years to go before I achieve them.

That’s why I believe that success is more about the progressive realization of a goal than the actual achievement at the end (sorry that it took so long to explain!).

Education does not equal a great income.

Have you ever asked yourself why you only make minimum wage?