What’s your definition of success? Is it acceptance into college, a successful career, a happy family or financial independence? Maybe it’s a bit simpler, like losing some weight or building some muscle? The truth is that achieving success is not the same for every person. But one of the most important steps in achieving it is to define what success looks like for you.

Our lives can be summed up into three categories: who we are, who we know and what we do.  Who we are is about our values and beliefs. Who we know is about the people we will associate with. What we do is about the things we achieve or want to achieve.

Sadly, for most people success is defined by who they know and what they do. The problem with this definition is that we know of many successful people like athletes, artists, politicians and even pastors who worked very hard on knowing the right persons and doing whatever it takes to reach their definition of success only to see their lives come crashing down because they never focused on becoming the right person.

“A good reputation is more valuable than expensive perfume.” – Proverbs 7:1

In our culture, success is primarily determined based on the people we know and what we have. But King Solomon, who was among the wisest and wealthiest the world has ever seen, said that our reputation is far more important than any achievement. In our world today there are many talented and hardworking persons who never realized this truth and even though they achieved great things, what they did not achieve was lasting success.

Any personal definition of success has to flow from becoming the right person, because who you know and what you’ve achieved will not make you truly successful. But, when who you know and what you’ve achieved is the result of becoming the right person, then that will lead to lasting success. Lasting success is the result of learning to prioritize becoming the right person over who you know and what you do.