Is Your Career Successful by Your Definition of Success?

You can have the title, salary, prestige and career other people admire—and still recognize that you are capable of contributing in a different way.

That does not make what you have accomplished less successful.

And pursuing another path does not mean trading success for purpose.

My conversation with Dr. Kapu Patel on Ambitious Leadership for Christians challenged a much narrower idea: that there is one right way for an ambitious career to unfold.

Kapu had built a lucrative and prestigious corporate career. There was nothing inherently wrong with that path. It simply was not giving her the gratification she wanted or allowing her to fully pursue what she recognized as her purpose.

What did?

Identifying the strengths in other people. Encouraging them. Helping them understand how to use those strengths to accomplish the goal ahead.

Recognizing that thread gave Kapu a different lens through which to consider her career and the work she wanted to pursue.

And that raises an important question for all of us:

Are you defining success by what looks impressive—or by what allows you to fully use your gifts and pursue the vision for your life?

Ideally, you do not have to choose between the two.

Purpose Does Not Require You to Lower Your Ambition

I am ambitious. I respect ambition.

I do not believe pursuing purpose requires us to stop wanting meaningful work, financial success, influence, advancement or excellence.

The question is what those things are building toward.

You can reach the top of a traditional career ladder and be exactly where you are supposed to be. You can also discover that your gifts and vision are leading you somewhere else.

Neither path is inherently more noble.

What matters is whether you are allowing someone else's definition of success to keep you from pursuing your own.

That can be difficult when you have already accomplished a great deal.

You have invested years developing expertise. You have built a reputation. You may be well compensated and highly respected. People around you may see absolutely no reason for you to change anything.

But you are the one responsible for your vision.

At some point, you have to ask:

Does the work I am doing allow me to fully use my gifts and make the contribution I believe I am here to make?

For Kapu, answering that question differently led to different career decisions.

Your Career Does Not Have to Be Linear

We often think about career advancement vertically.

You move up. Earn the next title. Assume more responsibility. Make more money.

That is one legitimate path.

It is not the only one.

Sometimes growth is horizontal. A move across industries, functions or roles may give you experience, relationships or perspective that becomes essential later.

And sometimes the next move is entrepreneurial.

The important point is not that one direction is better than another.

It is that progress does not always travel in a straight line.

A career can expand as well as ascend.

That means a decision that looks unconventional to someone studying your résumé may make perfect sense when viewed through the larger vision for your life.

Nothing Is Wasted

That is also why changing direction does not mean starting over.

You take yourself with you.

The expertise you developed still belongs to you.

The relationships you built still matter.

Your judgment, leadership experience, communication skills, industry knowledge, successes and mistakes all become part of what you bring to the next opportunity.

Even the experience of discovering what does not fulfill you gives you useful information.

We can become so focused on whether our careers look linear that we miss how one chapter has equipped us for another.

The question is not simply, How does this next role move me up?

Sometimes a better question is:

What is this experience adding to my ability to accomplish the larger vision?

When you see your career that way, the seemingly disconnected pieces can begin to make sense.

Your Vision Will Not Always Make Sense to Other People

Of course, pursuing a different path can come with consequences.

Kapu is candid about that.

Major career decisions can affect finances, identity and relationships. Looking back, there are things she might have approached differently knowing what she knows now.

That wisdom matters.

Count the cost. Prepare. Consider who else will be affected. Ask good questions. Learn from people who have already traveled a similar road.

But preparation and permission are two different things.

You can carefully consider wise counsel without requiring everyone around you to believe in your vision before you pursue it.

Some people will not understand.

Some may criticize.

Others may genuinely believe you are making a mistake.

And sometimes their concerns will come from people who love you.

Leadership requires enough humility to listen—and enough conviction to know when you still need to move forward.

Other people do not have to see your vision before you are allowed to believe in it.

Look for the Thread

If you are reconsidering your own career direction, do not immediately assume you need to blow everything up and start again.

First, look for the thread.

What kind of work has consistently energized you?

When have you felt most useful?

What strengths seem to follow you from role to role?

What do people naturally seek your help with?

What problems do you genuinely enjoy solving?

And what vision keeps resurfacing even when you try to dismiss it?

For Kapu, the thread was recognizing strengths in other people and helping them use those strengths to accomplish what was ahead of them.

Your thread may lead you deeper into the career you already have.

It may lead you to another organization, another industry, entrepreneurship or a combination you have not considered yet.

The destination is not the lesson.

Alignment is.

Success is not abandoning ambition for purpose.

It is refusing to compromise the vision for your life simply because another path looks more conventional.

You can pursue purpose and prosperity. Meaning and achievement. Fulfillment and influence.

The path may be traditional. It may be unconventional. It may change several times along the way.

Just make sure it is taking you toward the life and contribution you are actually called to make.

Listen to my full conversation with Dr. Kapu Patel on Ambitious Leadership for Christians with Nicole Pride.

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