> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://katecarruthers.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Success but on whose terms? What about personal brands and character?
- URL: https://katecarruthers.com/success-but-on-whose-terms/
- Published: 2010-11-14T23:15:16.000Z
- Updated: 2010-11-14T23:15:16.000Z
- Author: Kate Carruthers
- Tags: ideas, business, career, inspiration, life, people, #Migrated-1775015344493, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-04-01 14:49

There is so much pressure on people these days to be successful. And I do not think we are encouraged to stop and think what success actually means for each of us and for society in general. Many of us seem to be on a treadmill. Go to school, get *good* grades and get into a *good* university and then get a *good* job. Then get a mortgage on a house in a *good* area and possibly buy an investment property. By this stage we are supposed to be successful and thus be happy.

But I'm not sure that this is the correct equation for achieving a happy and successful life. I see the pattern so often. Many of my friends are on this treadmill. Some of get to their thirties or forties and realise that they have not achieved as much as they had hoped to. Perhaps their job isn't *good* enough, perhaps they didn't go to a *good* enough university. In any case they start to feel defeated and not *good* enough. They begin the slide down into a gently defeated middle age where they think that because they did not do *good* enough their life will not really amount to much now.

It seems to me that this is no way to live. Constantly checking yourself out against an ill-defined standard of *good*. What the hell does *good* in these contexts mean anyway? Because the standard of *goodness* is not defined - and *good* goes so easily with *better* and *best* \- there is always a feeling that the *good* thing might be surpassed by a *better* thing.

There is little room in this pattern for joy, inspiration, non-traditional approaches, or unexpected roads to fulfilment.

Coupled with this treadmill is the relatively new notion of 'personal branding'. [Chris Penn](http://www.christopherspenn.com/2010/02/the-reason-why-your-personal-brand-sucks/?ref=katecarruthers.com) wrote a nice piece on personal branding recently which is worth a read (HT: [@maverickwoman](http://twitter.com/maverickwoman?ref=katecarruthers.com) for the link).

When the idea of a personal brand is tied to the treadmill of a *good* career it puts even more pressure on people to measure up to these ill-defined standards.

When we look back to history many of the people we most admire did not follow the generally accepted standards of the day with regards to *good* education, jobs, etc.

It's time for us all to think and feel and reason about what is *success*. How does that link to character (not personal brand)? What kind of person do we want to be? And what kind of actions do we need to undertake based on that? By thinking about these things we can determine what to do to achieve success on our own terms and not upon the ill-defined terms that seem to be generally accepted in our society.