Success

What Is Success?

Another good question. And unfortunately I can’t help myself, and it’s a long answer.

For most of my life, I defined success the way my family, my culture, my education, and my peers defined it. I chased the version of “the good life” that America held up from the 1980s through the 2010s—achievement, productivity, wealth, and influence. And by those standards, I did well. But now, when I look back, I feel a mixture of grief and anger about what I sacrificed along the way.

I poured myself into work. I convinced myself it was “changing the world,” and in some ways it was. But the cost was high: I neglected my family, my community, and significant parts of my faith. I even reshaped my sleep around productivity—4–6 hours during the week, “catching up” on weekends (which we now know isn’t how sleep works). And everyone around me was doing the same. More. Better. Faster. Always.

Yes, our era created extraordinary breakthroughs—the PC, the internet, the smartphone, early AI, massive global supply chains, and an explosion of economic prosperity that dramatically reduced global poverty. Healthcare advances were staggering. There was real good in that.

But there was also corruption, and a growing obsession with profit for its own sake. I worked alongside people who lived only for money and status, with no space to actually enjoy life. And I also worked with people motivated by compassion—people trying to feed, clothe, shelter, and heal others. I’ve seen the best of business and the worst of it.

Over time I began to believe something simple:

Companies thrive when they provide something people genuinely need, and reinvest their success in making life better for others.

And they decline when they forget why they exist. When health insurers invest in AI to deny claims rather than improve care…

when executives leverage stock buybacks to enrich themselves…

when profit becomes the sole purpose rather than the fruit—

that’s when things fall apart. And often, the market eventually weeds them out.

The largest corruption scandals are also the largest personal and corporate failures. And yes, personal and corporate  bankruptcy is often the conclusion – bankruptcy such an good description.

So I look back on my career with mixed emotions. There was genuine impact. There was also wasted effort—time spent building the wrong things, for the wrong reasons, for people aimed at themselves rather than the common good. And I sacrificed too much to do it.

Spiritual Formation Changed the Question

Last year’s teaching on spiritual warfare was formative—not because of dramatic stories, but because it clarified the contrast between God’s Kingdom and the empire-systems of the world. It helped me see my own life more clearly.

How much of my energy went toward empire-building inside the Matrix?

And how much toward the Kingdom of God?

The answer is mixed. There was real good. And real misalignment.

So What Is Success?

I believe God loves us and longs for our flourishing. And while God invites us to trust Him, we still live outside the garden—trying to learn how to flourish with what we’ve been given. And the only way to do that faithfully is to follow Jesus with our whole lives.

So I’m increasingly convinced that success is measured by love.

Not sentiment. Not niceness. But:

• How we use what God has given us to love others.
• How we meet real needs—feeding, sheltering, clothing, healing, restoring.
• How we help reorient people toward the God who loves them.
• How we help others discover their Imago Dei.
• How we reflect God’s love in concrete, tangible ways.

In the Kingdom of God, success isn’t what we built, produced, or accomplished.

It’s how we loved God and how we loved others.

Those are the marks of success that endure—long after empires rise and fall, long after careers end, long after the “next new thing” replaces the old one.

That’s the definition I’m learning to trust now.