This last week Joanne and I spent a few days at Whitestone Inn, one of our favorite get-aways. For some people, it would be too quiet, too remote and too unconnected. For us, it’s just right. We even chose the Mockingbird Suite since it’s in a cottage at the very edge of the property, away from the main buildings, overlooking the lake. Whitestone Inn receives the AAA Four Diamond award each year, won WeddingWire.com’s Bride’s Choice Award this year, and is rated as one of the 10 Most Romantic inns in America. The accommodations and the food are phenomenal – and yet the manager told us that recently a couple showed up, looked at a couple of rooms and then told him the place was just not up to “their standards.”
Oh well – it just reminded me that each of us can decide what “success” looks like. For many years I’ve used the definition of success from Earl 
Nightingale that reads: “the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.” That means a high school sophomore can be “successful,” someone who chooses to live in Haiti to build schools can be “successful,” and a person who is a doctor or a businessperson can identify and live out “success” in their own individual way.
And then on the way home, driving through Pikeville, TN we happened to see this car. I hit the brakes, turned around and snapped a couple pictures. Now there is “success” in a very individualized way. What if you want to drive an elegant car but you’re still very much a redneck? I guess one solution is a lift kit, 4-wheel drive on a Mercedes sedan.
Success comes in many forms. How do you define success in your life?
