When asked to lead a workshop on the keys to success in business, I came up with a theory. The truth is, I wanted the group of 80 people to wrestle with their own definitions of success and envision their own personal success story. So how to achieve this?

In order to inspire, I decided the workshop needed to begin with an authentic story. My story about labels.

The intent was not to have people learn more about me. I wanted my vulnerability to give them a story for context, that might help them see their own pursuit of success in business differently.

In order to prepare, I drew a timeline of my career, making hash marks for each defining moment that played into my personal success. What story could I share to inspire? And then it hit me.

Without getting detailed about every defining moment, the surprising realization was that the majority of these moments were negative or at least at the time, felt like significant challenges. And therein lies the magic. Looking at these events now from the zoomed-out perspective, I realized that each of these events wascatalytic in shaping a stronger, more unique version of me. Each one now plays an important role in my career and personal success. I will share in greater detail below. But first

A refreshing and more realistic perspective on success:

Lifes challenges could have been my excuse. Instead, success and amazing opportunities were born each time I began to accept each challenge as a unique gift.

My personal success story continues to unfold but heres what I realized. Accepting default labels from lifes challenges can easily limit your aimif you allow it.

I could have let life label me as the rejected, inexperienced, remote employee. But I didnt.

The keys to success come from:

Heres how that looks for me:

As an example, I went from not being hired by Block Imaging as a receptionist to now serving as their Senior Vice President of Marketing.

As another example, I went from being a remote employee very removed from the team. to instigator of content marketing culture. It was because I was so removed from my team that I had to figure out ways of staying connected digitally and building trust and influence from afar. Overcoming this challenge is the very reason I was able to imagine a content marketing culture that empowers every employee to better connect with our industry through online content.

So now its your turn. Draw up your own timeline and see which defining moments stand out. How can you use each challenge for good to empower you to get a clearer picture of why you do what you do and to help others in your journey to pursue success?

Read this article:
Keys to Success in Business and Your Personal Success