Getting to do what you love?  Providing for your loved ones?  What does success mean to you? Below you’ll find perspectives from some of the city’s best and brightest.

T.C. Anderson | Writer, Poet & Multimedia Designer

I’ve always found success linked to my happiness. I’ve always been a very goal-oriented person, even if those goals have changed over time as I have changed. My feeling of success has always come from accomplishing the goals I’ve set for myself. What I define as a success now – getting a book or writing piece published, getting recognized for my work, having someone tell me my work has affected them in some way – is very different than how I defined success when I was younger, because what made me happy when I was younger was very different. Do I feel like I’m successful? Yes, in many different aspects. There is no one chart of success against which everything is measured – it’s an accumulation of reaching both small and large goals I’ve set for myself. In that, I’ve always been successful. Read more>>

Daria Ratliff | Photographer

Aristotle said that “happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue”. Obviously, the theme of discussion is not happiness but success, however, one cannot deny the correlation of the two when it comes to examining our achievements in life. It means, ultimately, the fulfillment as a person, which is not the same as harvesting the material achievements that money helps one to obtain. It is to look around and find joy in the processes that shaped you as a person, and knowing that sacrifice pays in the end. Not the kind of sacrifice for working yourself to death long hours in the day, although this is also noble and also worth of praise. But the sacrifice of not bending to things that are against the universal values that shaped our civilization: goodness, beauty, truth. It is to know that your soul has not bent to darkness. Read more>>

Joanne Tang | Cosmetologists

To me, success means creating a business that empowers customers, employees, and community in equal measure. We want to add positive value to people’s lives, from a personal and professional standpoint. Read more>>