With the World Cup final approaching, this week I've been reflecting on what success really means, how it changes over time, and why the most important work is done long before the final whistle.
Today, the world will watch two teams walk onto the biggest stage in football. For ninety minutes, success will appear wonderfully simple.
One team wins. One team loses. A trophy is lifted.
History remembers the champions. But what interests me is how we judge success in seconds, when it takes years to build.
The final is what’s remembered. The work behind it isn't.
When people look back at this FIFA World Cup, they'll remember the goals, the celebrations and the defining moments. What they won't see are the thousands of training sessions, difficult conversations, decisions, tactical adjustments and ordinary days that shaped the outcome long before a ball was even kicked.
High performance has always fascinated me because business works the same way.
We celebrate the visible result while ignoring the invisible process that created it.
One of the biggest mistakes founders make is believing success has a finish line.
At the beginning, success is landing your first client. Or hiring your first employee. Then it's building a team. Then it's hitting that figure. Then it's the exit.
Every milestone feels like the destination until you get there. That's usually when something surprising happens.
The stakes change.
I remember speaking to founders after successful exits who expected to feel complete, only to realise they were asking themselves a completely different question a few months later.
"What now?"
It reminded me of something former NBA player John Amaechi said. When he reached the NBA, he remembers looking down at the court and seeing his name projected across the arena in laser lights. It was everything he had worked towards for years.
But then he felt something something unexpected.
"It didn't feel like enough."
Not because he'd failed, but because the context had changed. Once he'd achieved the dream, success was no longer about making it to the NBA. It became about starting games, becoming indispensable to the team and continuing to push himself. Later, when his playing career ended, success had to evolve again. It was no longer measured by points scored or games won, but by the impact he had as a psychologist, teacher and leadership adviser.
Founders experience the same thing, even if you don't always recognise it.
At the beginning, success is getting the business off the ground. Then it's hiring your first employee, reaching your first million or building a leadership team. But if you keep measuring yourself against a scoreboard you've already outgrown, you'll eventually feel as though you're standing still, even while you're making progress.
One of the most important leadership skills is recognising when your definition of success needs to evolve.
Because if you don't redefine what winning looks like, you'll spend your life chasing goals that belonged to a previous version of yourself.
Sport has an advantage over business. The scoreboard tells you whether you won.
There are profitable businesses that destroy the people running them. There are founders who look incredibly successful online but haven't taken a weekend off in years. Which raises the question...
What happens when the thing you've spent years chasing finally arrives, and it’s not enough?
I've become convinced that one of the healthiest things a founder can do is build a scoreboard that goes beyond revenue.
Mine certainly has.
Commercial success matters. So does freedom. So does building a business that doesn't depend on me every hour of every day. So does working with people I enjoy spending time with.
If you need more balance, download my work-life balance toolkit, here.
If your only measure of success is money, you'll probably never feel successful.
Because there will always be a higher number.
A better scoreboard asks different questions.
Those are much harder questions. They're also much better ones.
Download my goal setting template to help you focus on what matters.
The trophy is never the whole story. It's simply the moment the world notices years of invisible work.
Business works the same way. The life you're building isn't defined by one big win.
It's defined by the standards you keep long before anyone is watching.
That's the version of success worth chasing.
After building and scaling multiple agencies, I realised I was spending far too much time managing software instead of managing the business.
Different tools for CRM. Different tools for email marketing. Different tools for automations, bookings and pipelines.
Eventually I moved everything to GoHighLevel, and now I've unlocked a 30 day trial, just for you.
It's now the operating system behind the businesses I build because it removes complexity instead of adding to it.
To your unstoppable success,
Writer, The Success Method
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