I’ve always loved Legos. You buy a set, and it has the pieces you need to create the very same thing that is in the picture at the top of the box. In real life, though, it just works differently: first, you imagine what you want the picture to look like, and then you pick the pieces that will make a part of it.
As the year winds down, let’s think about success. It means different things to different people and companies. Success is usually tied to achieving goals in different parts of life—money, family, work, giving back, and more. It depends on our context for validation, not just what we believe. And, like a puzzle, our definition of it is always changing.
Success can have many faces, but all of them, whatever we choose to include, must be at the right proportion. At different times in our lives, the things that make us feel successful vary, and sometimes our previous ideas of success seem far away from our current selves. For a person or a company -a group of people working for a shared goal-, having a purpose and a clear vision is important to their health, because success comes from our connection to our purpose, like a guiding star. It’s a mix of our context, ambitions, and values.
When we ask if someone is successful, we might be asking the wrong question. Because it’s not about arriving at a successful destination; it’s about being on the right track to bring our purpose to life. Companies also have varying visions of success, but when personal and corporate success align, we look for deeper things that make sense to us at a fundamental, human level. Success isn’t free, as nothing really is: it has personal and emotional costs because any goal you pursue means you’ll have to do different things to reach it.
This 2023, I feel Arionkoder is on the right track. We’re growing our Legos, both in terms of quantity and quality, with a fantastic team, a great leadership team, a new operational model, the clients we choose to work with, strong foundations and our eyes set on the future. With these pieces, we’re resembling more and more the picture in the box. Because to us, success means finding more fitting Lego pieces and having the energy to create the ones we don’t have yet. Every piece is valuable, and together they make something more significant than their sum.
Success, to me, isn’t just arriving at a destination; it’s about the pieces that help you get there and doing so with our values intact. Do you consider yourself successful? If yes, what pieces in your set make you feel that way? If not, what’s missing? In 2024, I wish you find more and more pieces to build your dream set.