It's All Relative

I just read something that made my day. It was a request from a reporter (sent out to a large group - not just me) who was looking for "CEO's from successful businesses." Since this was a lifestyle piece and I'm not apt to talk to the media about my personal life to begin with, I already knew I wouldn't be responding but when I saw the "successful" part I figured that knocked me out of the running as well. And then, a line or two later, "successful" is defined as at least $50K in sales.

I'm not going to say whether my little business would qualify or not based on that that metric, but I will say that it caught me by surprise. Yes, $50K in sales is nothing to snear at. I'm happy for every penny along the way. But when I read "successful" I honestly thought of $1M in sales, maybe $500K at the least, but certainly more than $50K.

It was an interesting awakening because $50K is something my business either can reach or already has (purposefully staying vague, sorry). But I wouldn't have considered $50K successful before reading that. And then I had to ask myself, why not? I know I've talked about this before, but "successful" is a vague description and it seems to be a moving one as well. At first "successful" may be that first sale, then $10K in sales, then $50K in sales, then $100K in sales...you see how it goes. Successful isn't something I necessarily think my business is because I'm seriously working my A$$ off for every dollar. But to an outsider maybe this little business is successful? And perhaps I ought to look at it from the vantagepoint of an outsider from time to time to remind myself how very far we've come.