What is your definition of success?

This has been a “doozie” of a month.

Thanks for that really cool word Lauren Roach.

What made this month a “doozie”?

For starters, I fell off my bike, hit my head (really hard) and fractured a bone in my right arm. OUCH. Then I guess my immune system was down, so I caught a seriously crappy sinus infection. And on top of that, this thing called daylight savings time makes me feel like it’s midnight at 6 p.m.

Okay, that’s it. I got the whining out of my system.

Oh wait – one more thing… did I mention that Brains on Fire Greenville is doing an experiment? For about four weeks (while we are getting all new floors installed in our brand-new building) we’re a “distributed” company, working out of our own homes and borrowed conference rooms all over the city. Our first flooring system failed. Long, long story, but you can now ask me or Brandy anything you want to know about the properties of concrete and we WILL have an answer! We’ve both gone to grad school on concrete over the past six months. Not a skillset either of us wanted, but it’s ours now! Brains on Fire LA even had a little stint of construction madness this last month, too, as we expanded our offices there.

So yeah, I/we have had a lot going on. It’s been a “doozie”.

But it will all be fine. And we will be fine.

I know I’ve said this before, but this his company called Brains on Fire is full of some of the brightest, shiniest, kindest, most dedicated people I know. They work hard and yet somehow make it look SO easy. Monday, our last day in the office together before the construction work began in Greenville, a small group of us ate lunch on the Creative Lab floor. One of our sweet little office babies giggled happily along with us. A couple of people were talking about a current client project. And as I sat there watching this simple little gathering, this amazing feeling just washed over me. I had to put down my burrito and just let it settle over me for a moment. It honestly hit me quite hard and suddenly.

And well, I can’t be certain, but I think the feeling was “success”.

I’ve always read that success is what you define it to be. And I’ve never really thought about defining success as a “feeling.” But Monday, sitting there and realizing that we have created a company that can weather storms and raise beautiful families and create great work for truly amazing clients and still find time to laugh out loud together, well I am not sure it gets better than that. Profits and growth are pretty nice to have, but it really is all about people.

Human connection is truly the most powerful force on Earth.

We see that in the work we do every day. And I saw it up close and very personally sitting on the floor on a rainy Monday eating my lunch.

So. Here’s my take away. And my round-about definition of success.

Make time today to connect with the people you serve and the people you work with. Stop and really pay attention to what matters most. I hope when you do, you catch the feeling of “success.” Because for me, that feeling is truly priceless.