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Hi, All, Back in February Jerry Mathel put up a post defining "success." Humorous thing and the responses were in a light vein. I would like to ask how most of you define "success" on a more serious level. Is success in life the same thing as success in business? Do you equate one with the other? I have my own notions about these and related questions, but before putting them on the BB, I'd like to read what most of you think.
------------------ Bill Preston Fly Creek, N.Y. USA wpreston2@stny.rr.com
Posts: 943 | From: Fly Creek, N.Y. USA | Registered: Jan 2000
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Your work is at the top end of quality You enjoy doing it You look forward to each workday Your family is well kept Your bank account grows steadily You're in good health Your family is happy with you Primers and powders are available in abundance Your Swiss Rifle collection is complete The UN has been rejected in perpetuity
Th th th that's all, folks!
------------------ St.Marie Graphics & Makin' Tracks Sound Studio Kalispell, Montana stmariegraphics@centurytel.net http://www.stmariegraphics.com 800 735-8026 We're chiseling every day of the week! :^)
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Success: having a great family life. Raising kids that grow up well adjusted and still love their parents! Success: Having work that you enjoy and that stimulates and feeds your creative urges. Success: Making enuf money to take care of your families needs and some of their wants. LE
------------------ LazyEdna in RL known as Sara Straw from southern Utah 5 National Parks within 3 hours drive Red Rock Heaven
Posts: 776 | From: Aurora, Utah, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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NEVER trade money for happiness. I love my family and if I can provide for them I feel I'm successful. I don't want more than I need. Everyday when I come downstairs to my shop I need to be happy. If I'm not, I may as well get my old job back because I made more money at it. As a old sign buddy said to me "paint signs because you love to paint and the money will come naturally." Be honest to yourself and your customer and you will have more work than you can handle.
------------------ Rob Larkham RL Graphic D-Sign Chester, MA rldsigns@aol.com
Posts: 517 | From: Chester, MA | Registered: May 2001
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Yo, Si! Last winter's count was 9,600 .308, 11,250 .223, 2,100 7.5 Swiss, 855 .45, 1,300 9mm, 530 .41 mag, 325 .32 and 1,400 lbs of Wheelweights. Plenty of tin and antimony. We be in goooooood shape!
heh
------------------ St.Marie Graphics & Makin' Tracks Sound Studio Kalispell, Montana stmariegraphics@centurytel.net http://www.stmariegraphics.com 800 735-8026 We're chiseling every day of the week! :^)
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Success is a state of mind. If you feel successful.....then you are! 25 years ago I felt like a success painting signs....and driving around in my handpainted (with a brush!) orange VW with my MDO tied to the top. It didn't matter to me what anyone else thought. Still doesn't.
------------------ surf or MoJo on mirc Cheryl J Nordby Signs by Cheryl Seattle WA.....! signsbycheryl@hotmail.com
I was a successful baseball coach this year, but only won half of the games.
So, if you made $$$$$$ in business quests, but your family all hated you, divorced you, and God didn't even like you, would you still be a success?
A Drunk is a successful drinker, right?
------------------ Draper The Signmaker Bloomington Illinois USA
Get To A Letterhead Meet This Summer! See you there! DUCK SOUP SPLATTER JAM Sept. 14,15,16 Somewhere in Alabama -------------------- 309-828-7110 drapersigns@hotmail.com Draper_Dave on mIRC chat
Posts: 2883 | From: Bloomington Illinois USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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My brother and I are part owners in the studio, so I guess I have a good start. My work is good. (Dad wouldn't let it leave the studio if it wasn't) I like what I do. I'm a good painter and layout artist. I'm a decent bass guitarist. I'm a fairly good control room engineer. I'm a crack rifle shot, A very good skeet shot, A good pistol shot, and I depend on no man for help or protection. For my age, I'm successful, I think. :^)
------------------ Girls carve too! Behind every good Woman, there's a man.............waiting.
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I see folks that are considered successful by others, but I question it. Some folks barely take any risks in life, and others might risk it all. There's a balance where you know how much to hang on to for security and are willing to risk the rest. Learning from those risks, whether they work or not, is being successful to me.
------------------ The SignShop Mendocino, California "Where the Redwoods meet the Surf"
Posts: 6806 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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If you are successful in life you will be successful in anything else that you get involved in. Success is relative to what you think it is. I have seen people that I know become "successful" in my eyes, business wise, after going belly up four times in a row. I have seen my father with a grade 3 education build a company that at one time employed 300 people and he did it honestly and with integrity. And that's the key. At 77 and retired he is still going on working from 7 to 5 rebuilding an aircraft and putting in every effort in accomplishing his tasks to near perfection. As far as I'm concerned that is success! You cannot judge success by the amount of money one is making or by how popular one is. It is strictly a frame of mind. Being successful is being happy with yourself and your family and the rest falls into place. Amen!
------------------ Mario G. Lafreniere aka Fergie.
jnsigns@onlink.net Chapleau, Ontario home of "The World's Largest Game Preserve" Spring is upon us,in Shania Twain Country. Farewell snow,here comes the mosquito!
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lord have mercy,success would be me @ 24 instead of 66 and meeting a girl like rosemary to be in bussiness with, but i guess i'll have to just be happy knowing the kids still call and say they love me and i love what i'm doing each day and don't let other people anger me that way they can't control me, ge;o)),
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SUCCESS! A very vast topic. I have a great family, close to my dad and mom, wife and i are very happy, the kids are very spoiled. Everyone tells me i have achevied more than most people my age. Turned 25 in june. Been in business since 18. Have 2 summas, a few computers, screenprinting equip. Lots of airbrushes. 2 fairly new automobiles. My own home. I guess all the things people want. But i never feel like i am doing enough. I guess i was born a go get'er. I am driven. I just can't seem to be content. I am getting ready to purchase an edge. Iam really wanting to build my own commercial shop. And stop leaseing. I'd like to buy my wife a bigger home, so i can have a billiard room! I don't yet feel successful. I look at others twice my age and want to be where they are... now. I have brought my father into my business, since his retirement.With his help i want to expand in to electric sign service, which means bucket truck. My mind is costantly running over ideals, until sometimes it seems to litterialy wear me out. I guess i need to know what defines success as well! Sorry to ramble so much.
------------------ Scott Patterson Creative Signs & Graphics Lily, KY kscott98@msn.com
Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with Excellence!
Posts: 52 | From: Lily, Ky, USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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I have been involved in a lot of business ventures......I have seen corporate adventures, mis-adventures, and watched people sell their soul.....I have watched my family get involved in success, and watched my friends get involved in gaining success, I have watched the self-serving, play with the self serving....I have watched "'what goes round,come around''..............I have listened to my friends complain about their rotten kid's, and the infinite problems that ignoring your basic 's always cause, I have made a lot of money....and lost a lot of money......success...****.....I started in the sign business.....at the same time my 18 year old son went blind......success meant nothing to me then......He meant everything to me....it cost a lot of time, and a lot of lost income........and a pile of disstress for his brother, his mother and Him....You see, he is an artist, he is a success, his sight is back, and every thing that he creates makes me weap.....no ****...I get emotional.....you want success, look close to home.................Ron
------------------ "Of all the things I've lost in my life...I miss my mind the most" Ron Norwood 6732 Raleigh Street Vancouver, BC V5S 2X1 Phone/Fax: (604) 437-0899 email.hitest@mailcity.com
Have bumped this one back up because it relates to the Signgold challenge and Business picking up threads, and because I never answered my own post originally.
There seems to be some fairly heavy-duty philosophical differences on the Signgold thread regarding time spent versus profitability versus materials cost. Whatever works for you is OK depending on your own point of view.
On the biz picking up thread, now we're getting into the defining success angle. For some, it would appear the definition depends on dollars brought in. For others, it is a matter of happiness, sometimes at the expense of the bucks. For still others, there is a middle ground-- happiness with what one does, but no great financial return. Maybe this last is my category-- liking what I do, but never getting rich at it.
Old person talkin' here-- three of the toughest words in the language to define are "love", "happiness", and "success". What is your take on any or all of them?
-------------------- Bill Preston Fly Creek, N.Y. USA Posts: 943 | From: Fly Creek, N.Y. USA | Registered: Jan 2000
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Dang Bill. You beat me to the punch. I was going to start a thread about it after work tomorrow. I was even going to do one of my patented long-winded post too! Hehehe
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Bill is right, these posts really are related. Success to me..... Being able to do what you love and make a good living, family that loves you and customers who LIKE coming to you and respect you. We sometimes get so burdened with "How much do you make an hour?" It's VERY important but NOT everything! Everyone has different expenses, locations,lifestyles & expectations. What I mean is, there's is no right answer. We have a small house that we have completely remodeled over that last few years, a beautiful shop to work in with all the best equipment,plenty of work, a new vehicle every 3-4 years, a street rod, a retirement account,and a truely WONDERFUL husband. I can ALWAYS depend on his help and there isn't anyone I'd rather spend my free time with. How could it be better? Karen
I have an awesome wife who is an excellent signchick in her own right. We have a cool dog (Bert)and two silly cats (Shirley and Sophie Silly, the silly sisters...). We have a cute little house. We have a nice car... I mean Dana has a nice car...
I have an amazing business partner who is one of the best friends I ever had. We have a very successful business. We have a great building. We make a good living.
I have good friends. I belong to a great Masonic Lodge. I go to a nice church with good God fearing people. I have a great pair of sneakers and a pair of Wolverine boots.
But through it all, I am loved by my Lord, Jesus Christ for reasons known only to him. I like that.
Am I successful? Beats me... I just know I wouldn't want to be anywhere else than where I am right now.
Have a great one!
-------------------- Bruce Bowers
DrCAS Custom Lettering and Design Saint Cloud, Minnesota
"Things work out best for the people who make the best of the way things work out." - Art Linkletter Posts: 6464 | From: Saint Cloud, Minnesota | Registered: Jun 1999
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Success, well I think as youngsters we all felt we would be or find success. And now being older, I beleive most of us have, success has sooo many different meanings to so many different people.
To me, I set out not so much to be rich or famous, rather to "own my time", I dreamed of this everyday while workin for a livin in the many buissinesses I was involved in.
While my 2 children were growin up, I feel I missed a lot of they're lives, I worked my regular 8, then I came home ,ate, and did custom work in my shop another 5 to 6 hours and usually both Sat. and Sun.. Yes I loved the feeling of acomplishment, but I would have traded it in a minute to be able to spend as much time as I wished with the family.
Well now that the kids are grown and living their own lives I finally acheive that dream "owning my own time". Thats ok, my kids love me, my health isn't too bad, I beat a lot of odds and I do what I want to do most of the time.
Better late then never.
Roger
-------------------- Roger Bailey Rapid Tac Incorporated 186 Combs Dr. Merlin Oregon 97532 Posts: 3020 | From: Merlin Oregon | Registered: Dec 1998
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I think success is lying in bed at the end of the day knowing that:
You've lived a good life, filled with love, and have set a good example for your children
Even if you won't make it until tomorrow, your loved ones are looked after and/or can look after themselves
In spite of everything, things are as they are and you wouldn't change a thing in your life to-date...even if you could.
Cause at the end of the day, life is short and all-too fragile. We've all made mistakes and all experienced pain...how we love and learn and grow and give and hope are what really make life worth living.
[ March 15, 2002, 09:12 AM: Message edited by: Jon Aston ]
-------------------- Jon Aston MARKETING PARTNERS "Strategy, Marketing and Business Development" Tel 705-719-9209 Posts: 1724 | From: Barrie, ON, CANADA | Registered: Sep 2000
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Having a deep breath in your lungs and a wild look in your eyes at the dinner table. (Joy)
Having family and friends at that same table. (Peace)
Having plenty of food and a table. (Love)
If you've ever been lonely, grieving or "on the road"...you know exactly what I'm talking about. Everything else is just stuff that happens, and how we choose to handle it. Each day the scenery and circumstances change. It's nice to have a place to relax and share happy moments with people we love, on a full belly.
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After the material obligations are met, knowing that I can live with myself after performing the tasks that paid the bills.
The glory of the Self is beheld by a few, and a few describe it; a few listen, but many without understanding. The Self of all beings, living within the body, is eternal and cannot be harmed. Therefore, do not grieve.
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This is a saying I always use... "If you hav'nt got a friend... you have nothing! I am fortunate enough to have a Big Family.. 5 wonderful sisters, a big brother, a Mom and Dad, an absolute Angel for a wife and Business partner, a very handsome Son, who by the way looks just like his dad..ahem... and a struggling Sign Business which has great Sales, now if I can get that business to start making some real money then i'd be happier... but I guess I can say I'm successful. It's all how you look at it.
-------------------- "Keep Positive"
SIGNS1st. Neil Butler Paradise, NF Posts: 6277 | From: St. John's NF Canada | Registered: Mar 1999
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Hey - Great replys here - success is NOT related to the size of your balance sheet.........my 2 wonderful daughters could care less 'bout how much I got in my wallet..........hey, what it all boils down to is,,make 'enuff to keep your family comfortable....put a little away EVERY week...and enjoy life...........Carl
-------------------- Carl Wood Olive Branch, Ms Posts: 1392 | From: Olive Branch,MS USA | Registered: Nov 1999
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along with being able to provide a comfortable and safe life for my family utilizing my skills.
-------------------- AirbrushBobby.com Clearwater, FL The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.1Cor1:18 “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord”Rom6:23 Posts: 505 | From: Clearwater Florida USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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not to be morbit but defining sucess will come on my funeral day. If more people show up then stayed away then I would be a sucess. But of coarse how would I ever know that being six feet under?
-------------------- paul taylor pictougraph images new glasgow, nova scotia paultaylor42@hotmail.com Posts: 80 | From: nova scotia | Registered: Feb 2002
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I'll bet that at least a few of people here in Letterville have read "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People". In that book there's an interesting excercise...
Pick two people that you would like to have eulogize you...could be anyone you want...a sibling, a son or daughter, a friend
Think about the things that you would like them to be able to say about you and the life you lived in your eulogy. Write it down.
When you've finished, you will have a great "guideline" by which to live your ideal life, if you aren't already doing so...strikes me as a sort of roadmap for achieving meaningful success.
[ March 16, 2002, 08:32 PM: Message edited by: Jon Aston ]
-------------------- Jon Aston MARKETING PARTNERS "Strategy, Marketing and Business Development" Tel 705-719-9209 Posts: 1724 | From: Barrie, ON, CANADA | Registered: Sep 2000
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I believe that everyone's talents here are God given, and to think you are "great" in and of your own doing is arrogant. Sure, you learn from others and hone the skills' God gave you...and that is as it should be.
Independence is only as good as the health God gave you. Tomorrows' plans might include an unforeseen paralyzing fall from a ladder. How self-reliant might we be then?
So, in a nutshell...success for me is praising God for my worldly successes and making sure I do my part in creating the best products I was made capable of.
Family, friends, a decent living, sunsets and fresh air are all successes to me that come from above.
-------------------- Todd Gill Outside The Lines Potterville, MI Posts: 7792 | From: Potterville, MI | Registered: Dec 2001
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I was going to start a thread about it after work tomorrow. I was even going to do one of my patented long-winded post too! Hehehe
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