Passion, Experience & Growth

What Is Success

January 27, 2024

“it’s exceedingly likely that my greatest success is behind me.” — Your elusive creative genius | Elizabeth Gilbert

When Legend was shut down, it was the end of an era—thirteen years of growth ended on January 12, 2004. I concluded that my days as a professional programmer were over for good. However, the prior four years had been so brutally hard that it didn’t feel like success. So, although the transition was difficult, it was also a relief.

I entered my seven year career at AOL with only one expectation: “Among 15,000 co-workers, I was bound to have new experiences, and as a result, I hoped to grow as a person.” During each of those seven years, that hope was realized in different and increasingly spectacular ways.

But in July 2011, I was catapulted out of AOL, and headlong into my May 16th vision: “I now have five product ideas for the iPhone. I’m going to start my own company.”

I formed Decision Tools LLC that August. And then, FTLapps, Inc., that December. How did I define success for FTLapps? On the App Store in January 2012, I made my first dollar. Success that year was “any day/week/month where I made more than the period before.” By October 2013, I was beginning to define success as “the potential that the business would grow sufficiently to pay the rent.”

We were only grossing $1,000 a month, but the growth rate was exponential, so I knew it was just a matter of time and continued growth. But in November, the “continued growth” strategy flamed out violently, and revenues declined, and that dream of “success” died. I pivoted to a game: ZenConnect. It was an interesting idea, so I pursued it… for months. But by its launch in May, I knew that time was up! FTLapps was not going to “pay the rent” any time soon, and I was running out of money—fast. So, I pivoted again!

What do you do when you’re burning through $100K each year, have no real career prospects, and your retirement funds—depleted over the last three years—are rapidly closing in on zero? Hire your son to work with you, and work together from June 6th to August 16th to completely tear down and rebuild the deck. Nick’s hourly rate was cheap. The time together, invaluable. The deck served us very well for another four years until we left Virginia in August 2018. Still to this day, I look at that few months as one of the greatest successes of my life—my son and I built something big together.

But the deck certainly wasn’t going to pay the bills. So, in August, I pivoted into the career search in earnest. Three years behind me, I now had three years of experience as a “professional” iOS developer. And in the October 2014 market, that was a lot of experience.

Nearly a decade further in my iOS career, I’ve watched former co-workers become titans of industry, accomplished book authors, and renowned game designers. What have I done? I’m still a programmer.

“I would prefer to keep doing this work that I love. And so, the question becomes, how?” – Elizabeth Gilbert

My answer is simple: Redefine success. And, realize that success is not a worthwhile goal—it’s an outcome.

Instead, realize that the goal is to enjoy the creative process when it’s easy, and to relax and do something else when it’s not. It’s a big world. There are endless possibilities. Pursue what you love. But when that pursuit stops being fun, build a deck! Drop your expectations for success. Look ahead. Work hard at the things you value—consider relationships first. And when you look back, see the successes in your wake.

Don’t expect what’s ahead. Just pay attention, and move forward.