Founder And Chairman, Bloomberg L.P.
New York, New York
Success is entirely relative. But anyone who has achieved a great deal of it will demonstrate a serious work ethic and an essential love of what they do. Years ago, when I started working at Salomon Brothers, I was always the first guy in and the last guy to leave. Why did I work harder and longer than other people? Because I loved what I was doing.
The energy and momentum of my daily routine didn't just allow me to do more work. It gave me access to top levels of management and allowed me to develop personal relationships with many of the people who made key decisions at the firm.
It's simple, really. The more you enjoy your job, and the more you want to outwork everyone else, the more likely you'll make an invaluable contribution to your organization -- and succeed.
Michael Bloomberg is one of Wall Street's most successful entrepreneurs. His just-published book is "Bloomberg by Bloomberg" (Wiley, 1997). His personal net worth is estimated at $1 billion.
Cofounder and President, Tom's of Maine.
Author, "The Soul of Business: Managing for Profit and the Common Good" (Bantam Books, 1993), Kennebunk, Maine
Success means never letting the competition define you. Instead, you have to define yourself based on a point of view you care deeply about. The point of view of our company shapes who we employ, where our ingredients come from, who sells our products, how we finance operations, and how we work together internally. We've learned that if any decision is made that goes against our beliefs then we don't look like ourselves and we won't maintain our level of success.
It's not always easy to meet those standards. To make tough business decisions, we hold something called a "circle up." We flatten the hierarchy and create a circle of people who can offer diverse perspectives. The circle doesn't make the decision; that's still up to the person with the authority. But that person always benefits from the dialogue.
One last point. Success is not about individual achievement. A few years ago I wrote a book about the emptiness of success when you're driving it all alone, not listening to others, and just working for the numbers. Success is a shared experience connected with lots of people. It is a bottom line with a heartbeat.
Tom's of Maine, makers of all-natural toothpastes and other personal-care products, has won many awards for innovation and social responsibility.
General Partner, Sequoia Capital
Menlo Park, California
moritz@sequoiacap.com
Success comes from always worrying that you're going to lose.
Sequoia's many successful startups include Apple Computer, Cisco Systems, and Yahoo!
Cofounder, Global Business Network
Emeryville, California
sbb@well.com
Success is when something you've said or something you've written enters the public discourse -- usually without your name attached. It becomes something people find worth saying to one another on its own merits.
My friend Brian Eno's phrase "Been there, done that" (originally a song) is a classic example of that form of success.
Likewise, success is when something you've done in your own business becomes an accepted way for lots of businesses to do that sort of thing - again, usually without public credit.
I've had personal experience with that form of success. There's a school of thought that says that trade paperbacks -- now an important category of books in the publishing business -- came into existence after we invented the "Whole Earth Catalog." Back in 1971, when Random House contracted to distribute the book, which was a large-sized paperback, I got on my environmental high horse. In negotiations with the company, I insisted that unsold books be returned -- in the same way that hardbacks were -- rather than be pulped.
Evidently the idea worked well enough that the "trade paperback" became a whole new distribution category in the publishing industry.
Of course, I'm diminishing my success by telling this story.
The Global Business Network advises some of the world's largest companies on strategy, change, and future scenarios. Stewart Brand is best known as the founder of the "Whole Earth Catalog" and The Well, one of the most influential communities in cyberspace.
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