Three things to consider before you hustle after success

Would you walk away from an 8-million-dollar content business?

I’ve been following Vanessa Lau for the last couple of years.

I’ve enjoyed some of her content, but I’ve mostly marveled at how she quickly built a super profitable influencer business.

Like the rest of the world, I was shocked last year when, at the height of her success, she suddenly pulled the plug on her whole business and disappeared.

This week (a year later), Vanessa posted this video explaining why she left it all.​

It’s a long video, and I don’t expect many of you to watch it, but it fired me up. I wanted to sort through my thinking, so I figured sharing a few takeaways might be good.

1. Heed the climb

If we’re not thoughtful, we’ll climb the same ladder everyone else is climbing, only to get to the top and realize that we’re miserable.

We can get caught chasing vanity metrics like awards, radio play, and millions of views and never stop asking, “What do I actually want or hope to accomplish?”

No one wants to hustle their way to success only realize that the hustle was pointless and the success is empty. The way to avoid this problem is to prioritize clarity before the momentum of success picks up.

2. There’s more than one path

It drives me crazy to watch creatives run down a path because they believe it’s the only one.

For example, the traditional path for being an artist or singer-songwriter has been to chase down a label, get radio plays, be interviewed on television, and secure the chance to open for a larger act.

This is still a path, but in 2024, it’s far from the only path.

And I would even say, for most artists, it’s the worst and most difficult path.

You don’t have to be traditionally successful to be successful.

You get to (and should) define what success looks like for you. And it doesn’t need to be flashy to be fulfilling.

​I came across a great example this week in the short article. If you were to guess what movie was most profitable in terms of ROI, I’m pretty sure My Big Fat Greek Wedding wouldn’t come to mind.

My point is that you don’t have to give up on your creative work just because you don’t think you can be traditionally successful or because you realize you don’t even want to be traditionally successful.

Vanessa made the mistake of believing she had to do what other people were doing to be “successful.” Without realizing it, she allowed others to define success for her without taking the time to figure out her own values, priorities, beliefs, desires, goals, and joys.

Thankfully, we don’t have to learn the hard way. We can stop right now and think through our personal ‘true North’ and set our compass accordingly before traveling further down the road.

3. Enough > More

One thing that deeply resonated with me is how Vanessa is changing one of her interests and values from “how to make more” to “how to make enough.”

The question I’m asking myself is:

“What is enough for me?”

I’m asking this not only about money but every success metric. What is enough?

This question isn’t complacent; it’s healthy. I’m all for setting goals and going hard after things. But if we’re not careful, we’ll find ourselves chasing after the wind. We’ll forget to be grateful for what we have, forget to celebrate how far we’ve come, and forget to enjoy our lives.

It feels good to succeed. But I guess I’m trying to say to you, dear reader, and to myself, beware of the success that doesn’t feel good. Let’s define what success is for us so that we aren’t constantly chasing after an elusive idea of success.