Are You Pursuing Success or Greatness?

If you’re creating something, anything, you will face this dilemma sooner or later.

Will you become the greatest version of yourself or the version that touches the widest audience and makes the most money?

The first is the artist you hear about who works tirelessly on mastering their craft. I picture them in an NYC loft apartment in an industrial area that a friend of theirs has let them use to go all out. The only thing that exists for them is the present moment, the process, the grind. The other is a creator who creates for an audience, they want to please and entertain, and they usually crave the recognition that goes with it.

I figured out how to balance my decisions, to follow heart and passion where it feels right and head and reason when it is required by other goals and circumstances.

I researched this subject the hard way

I used to be completely consumed by a made-up mission.

I was clueless as to who I was and what my true aspirations were, I had designed this future version of me who would either run an NGO or be a very successful entrepreneur that would, in turn, give back, and as I followed the second path, I quickly ran into a speed bump in the form of a major existential crisis.

Before it, what mattered to me were future financial gains and recognition, my whole life was designed around it, everything I did had a purpose. Happiness and fulfillment were not concepts that held a lot of weight in the way I made decisions.

Then the brick wall came, and I had to change a few things around, so I decided to follow my heart more, but a few months later another slap in the face came when my financial situation slowly grew into very poor shape…

And through these major shifts, I understood where I was on the spectrum, through my personal experience I figured out how to balance my decisions, to follow heart and passion where it feels right and head and reason when it is required by other goals and circumstances.

By working towards mastery, you are fulfilled, in a state of flow and bliss, whereas working towards monetary success and mainstream fame usually entails guaranteeing a more comfortable life in the future. We all need both, the question is: in what proportions?

This is meant to be an exploration, it is a lesson directly pulled from my personal experience to hopefully bring a little change of perspective to whoever needs it!

Let’s dig deeper, shall we?

The first major point I feel needs to be made is that this is not as obvious as being at the crossroads of two life paths and picking left or right. It is a slow and rather subconscious process, the result of thousands of micro daily decisions made to one day realize where you’ve ended up.

But some people are very aware of this process. Jon Bellion is one of them. He has built an incredibly strong and loyal fanbase, all the while steering clear of the more mainstream tactics offered by his industry and managing to keep his art completely authentic.

I personally wasn’t, it took me to reach burnout to realize I didn’t have sustainable goals. My goals, like many other 25-year-old entrepreneurs, were money and recognition, but they made me miserable on a daily basis.

Pursuing Fame

Pursuing the traditional definition of success is, I feel, where most of us start. That’s what we’ve been told repeatedly on all forms of media we’ve consumed since we were kids and it hasn’t changed with the wide array of business influencers that have thrived in recent years on social media.

A few years ago, before I’d achieved anything, I was already obsessed with being recognized for who I was. I wanted my articles to be read, my posts to be liked and shared. But that didn’t happen.

When success is what you are pursuing, the decisions you make day in, day out, are aimed at that outcome :

You use tricks and techniques in order to be seen by more people
You create work that you deem will be appealing to larger audiences
You prioritize relationships that advance your career
You prioritize tasks and projects that move you forward toward your goals

I don’t like generalizations but let me venture one here: all steps you take that make sense will often fall into this category. They are the objectively good decisions, they may not be the most fulfilling but they serve their purpose.

After months of making objectively sound decisions that were supposedly moving me towards monetary success and recognition left me unfulfilled and miserable, I started making certain changes. Most of these changes revolved around following my intuition and working on my self-realization.

Pursuing Greatness

“Be less impressed, get more involved” — Matthew McConaughey

In the past, I’ve asked myself whether you can call an artist an artist if no one resonates with their work. This is that side of the coin.

Greatness doesn’t need recognition, it is an infinitely intimate process and I would argue it isn’t even relative to others in your field and survives you after you are gone.

When it is greatness you seek, your everyday decisions also reflect this mindset :

You detach yourself from outcomes
You learn to focus on and love the process
You stay true to yourself, your art, and your values
The relationships you favor are the ones that make their juices flow

On this end of the spectrum, you are the sole master of your ship, it does not matter what anyone else says, the criticism flies way over your head because only you know what is good for you. It is your vision that prevails and you will see it through.

The decisions you make do not necessarily make objective sense, but they make sense to you.

Flow easier to achieve here

How about both?

So how exactly does that work in practice, how do you navigate between the two to find what works for you?

On that, I can only speak from my own experience, because I think we all come into this with a natural tendency and I know a few people who are so in tune with themselves that their natural tendency works perfectly for them, but for me … Oh boy what a messy journey it has been.

But it has taught me great lessons and I can now say that I’ve found my own personal balance, I know when to make certain sacrifices and when not to.

My approach has been two-fold :

Step #1: Listen to your intuition

Your intuition is never wrong about these things and when you are aligned with it, when you have learned to distinguish it from other aspects of your psyche, then you can confidently trust it and you will never make compromises that you could come to regret later on.

Option #2: Make regular conscious assessments

Taking a good objective look at your behaviors, relationships, and the event in your life is still the best way to know where you stand on the spectrum. You can look back and notice where you are deviating from what you have decided for yourself, maybe it’s your ego, maybe it’s that boy or girl’s opinion that has led to a misstep, whatever it is, take note and make sure it happens less and less in the future.

Let’s wrap this up

We are all different and approach our challenges and lives differently. We have different definitions of success and different goals. But we’re all on the same spectrum when it comes to these two things. Some people are so true to their heart they can only afford to eat every few days, others so focused on their fame they are extremely unhappy. But you’re most likely somewhere between the two, and wherever you are, it’s completely ok. We all have to make our experience, figure out who we are and what values we carry.

Find what works for you, I wish you success and fulfillment 🤍