How do you define success in your online business?

Making the most amount of money with the least amount of time so you can have freedom to do things you want with your family and friends.

Now if you just want to sit there and work for 18-24 hours a day and tell the world to fuck off, that's fine.

What makes you, not happy, but fulfilled? Some people have their work, so they have fun doing that. Others see work as a way to afford to do fun things outside of work - which you need time for, so freedom.

Being able to what you want whenever you want is the greatest flex. But I'd rather not flex, I'd rather move in silence - so privacy would be what I'm after.

Actually I once said and still agree: "The whole point of the internet is to make a bunch of money and then one day log off, one last time - FOREVER."
 
Most lucid carter post I ever read.

Shut up and make money.
Party with the hot people.
 
It doesn't really matter if it's online or offline, unless your entire goal is to not interface with clients or customers.

I'd say that everyone is working in order to make money, and even if you don't care about money, it's something that must come or you can't really engage in your goals the way you need to or want to. And if money is involved then there might as well be a lot of it, unless you're willing to trade "a lot" for "enough" because you're also doing something you enjoy. But certainly earning a surplus of money should be in everyone's success markers so you can retire one day. Even if you can do it forever, who wants to, and things move way too fast online (and often offline) with catastrophic endings, which is why the startup/liquidation path generally always makes sense.

A nice goal everyone involved in business should have is to earn enough money that financial concerns no longer exist, because a day will come if it hasn't already that health will be a concern, as well as relational drama. Removing financial concerns makes it easier to weather any other problem, since stress accumulates and makes everything tougher. And financial freedom allows you to help others, too.
 
It used to be money..

Now, it's money for generational wealth for kids. But another $1M, $10M, etc. isn't going to do anything for me personally. It will allow me to generate MORE money, but I've bought everything I could ever want; planes, wheels, boats, etc. aside. of which I very no interest.

> It's freedom from being a slave. 9-5
> It's freedom from political control, which is getting more and more expensive daily. Think prop costs, etc.
> Freedom from dealing with society/shit people. Live fuuuu having to go commute into the city an hour and deal with crazies lol.
> Purpose in documenting knowledge for next generation.
> Contribution to preventing degenerate society.

Like what else is there even? Shit's boring. We're just animals at the end of the day. We don't even control our own minds/bodies, we think we do. We really don't. Every stimuli we strive for is the results of lots and lots of evolution beyond our control.

Just enjoy life I guess...

I seriously don't know how people can do same things and call this enjoyable; like bro.. I can't go fishing, skiing, etc. 20,000x times and enjoy it. I go crazy. Some exceptions, I could build a business for 100k hours and love it but that's the insanity in all of this.

Personally, I am building something nuts right now. I will invest the income I earn. But my god there is so much trash people/content/etc. out there. something has to be done. I won't sell this time. I will just do whatever the fuck I want to do.

Side note: THAT IS THE GOAL. TO DO WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO. If I want to write about super anti-whatever subjects I can... I can put $$$ in stock market, and all my haters will still shop at TARGET AND I STILL EARN A DIVIDEND LOL
 
Liking your post, but don't knock fishing/
Post a fish
 
Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux and Git, stated that everyone progresses through 3 stages of motivations. I've resonated the most with that.

1st Stage: Survival​

People work to make money. They just want to put food on the table, have clothes on their back, and a roof over their head.

2nd Stage: Social Ties​

People work to uphold their social ties. We want to look good and proper in society's eyes. We want to make our parents proud, others love us, and develop lasting friendships. We work to contribute and take sacrifices for the people we love most. Many people don't progress from this stage, to the point where people are ready to even sacrifice their lives just to conform to societal expectations.

↑ This is currently where I'm at

3rd Stage: Entertainment <- This is the Goal​

People work because they like to work. Since Linus was speaking to programmers, he mentioned that programmers don't work for survival nor for show. They work just because they are so fascinated by the inner workings and mechanisms of a computer. They are so intrigued with how it works and how they can manipulate it do what they want it to do. This is the same thing as being passionate about something. You don't care how much money you're making, what power level you're on or who's looking and who isn't. You just do things because you're curious, its fun, or you can't imagine yourself doing anything else.

That's the goal for me. To be able to enjoy the freedom of doing what I like, just because I like it, with no expectations.

There doesn't have to be any growth involved (you could be working to reverse engineer a typewriter, which might not contribute to anything useful)

There doesn't have to be income involved (you don't care if you're not paid for it. You don't feel "exploited" for your labor.)

There might not be much freedom involved either (I want to buy the latest XYZ but I'd rather live frugally to fund this interest of mine)
 
For me is about Freedom.

I run an online business that generates me a huge monthly income.

My business involves monetizing AI generated girls on Fanvue (equivalent of OF, but this allows AI content).

So I’m my own boss, I can work from anywhere (so I don’t have to wake up in the morning, to get stuck in traffic, to go in the office, to speak with a lot of weird people and so on), to have deadlines, tasks and to answer to weird questions. Plus I’m working for me, I want to improve over and over my business, I’m motivated to do this, because I understand that if I will scale my business the income will be higher.

I’m a little bit different by others, I know that this could sounds weird but I calculate my income in saved time.

I don’t know if you watched “In Time” 2011 movie, but that movie was a reference for me.

Look my friends are working on wages like 4k $ monthly, I get in 1 month their annual wages.

So it’s not only that I make more money than them BUT I save time because for eg. someone is working for 4k $/ month, working 45 hours in average/ week on his/her regular job. This means 180 hours/ monthly.

He/she have to buy food, pay bills, maybe pay his bank loans and ended up with a couple of hundred of dollars in his/her pocket. Time for his/her family - limited.

We are not machines but some of us use to act just like them…so to work a lot of time for nothing, just for let’s say vital needs.
 
For several decades now, I have defined success as:

being able to do what I want, when I want, how I want

Money helps with this. But when you get down to the core.. you can achieve this ( depending ) without money.

And this all has to align with your values, principles, and more.

Sure if you want to live like Musk or Trump, gotta have money.

But if you just wanna travel the world, have no one tell you what to do ( or decide for you ), whenever you want ( within reason ).. you can do this with little to no money.

But you gotta define your values and principles first.
 
I was explaining to my wife this morning why we eat the venison that I've personally skinned cleaned and butchered myself. Why we eat as much food as possible that we grew on our own property. If I calculated the hours we spend on all this, the hourly rate would be far less than if I sat here at this desk and produced more revenue in my business with those same hours.

But its more about the philosophy, the lifestyle, the values, than the money. You simply cannot outsource what you receive by eating meat you personally cleaned/butchered and eating food you personally grew.
 
I'd boil it down to money. You can do whatever you want if you have enough money.

 
To be more brief, It's about finding that sweet spot where passion meets profit, and having the freedom to live life on your terms.
 
Success *in my online business* to me looks like alignment between

- Creative and strategic work
- Few, high-impact hours of work per day
- 5-figure MRR
- Fully remote
- Eventually, working in whatever I want and launching my own projects

If we're talking about "success" in broader terms, then I'm pretty much on the same page as everyone here.
 
Making enough to pursue the projects that I want and not the ones I have to, whilst paying for those I care about, and waking up excited or at least not miserable to work. And stability. That is key.
 
For me, success isn't just about revenue numbers. It's about building something that generates consistent income while giving me the freedom to control my time and work on projects I enjoy.
 
For me, success means consistent growth, satisfied customers, and a business that generates reliable long-term income.
 
I’d define success as the point where the business gives you more options than obligations.

Enough predictable profit that one bad month doesn’t change your life, enough systems that you can step away without everything stopping, and enough control over your time to choose what you work on and who you work with.

Revenue and growth matter, but I see them more as tools than the final score. If revenue doubles while your hours, stress, and dependence on the business double too, I’m not sure that’s really success.

The real win is when you own the business instead of the business owning you.
 
eliquid said:
Money helps with this. But when you get down to the core.. you can achieve this ( depending ) without money.
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A friend taught me a decade ago that "owning" things can be nice, but "access" is what counts. You don't need to own a fast car to drive fast cars, you just need friends who have them, a job where you work with them, or something else.

A few friends work on yachts and sail the world/fuck each other and get paid handsomely all in exchange for working 24h a day for a couple of days every quarter. Life could be worse!
 
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