What If Success Didn't Mean Exhaustion?
“With over two decades spent cultivating my own creative business, I've discovered true prosperity looks nothing like what I was taught it should.”
When I was a child, I watched my parents achieve what many would call extraordinary success. They became millionaires in the 1990s, when being a millionaire meant something quite different than it does today. From the outside, they had it all—the markers everyone seemed to chase.
Yet behind the scenes, I witnessed something that would shape my entire approach to business: external success doesn't guarantee internal fulfillment. In fact, their single-minded pursuit of wealth and status ultimately cost them dearly in other areas of life that truly mattered.
That stark contrast planted a seed that would grow into a fundamental question: What if we defined success differently?
The Pressure to Scale
If you're a creative entrepreneur, you've likely encountered the dominant narrative: grow or die. Scale up. Build a team. Maximize revenue. Maintain constant visibility across all platforms. Hustle harder.
These messages come at us from every direction, often delivered with absolute certainty by coaches and "experts" who present their way as the only path to success.
For sensitive creatives—those of us who process experiences deeply, feel things intensely, and need time for integration and rest—this relentless growth mentality often leads not to success but to burnout, disconnection, and a nagging feeling that something essential is missing.
A Different Kind of Prosperity
After more than two decades building my own creative business, I've discovered that true prosperity looks nothing like what I was taught it should.
My version of success includes:
The freedom to work according to my natural rhythms
Time to travel when inspiration calls
Deep, nourishing friendships
Space to ponder, process, create, and integrate
A joyful partnership with my husband
Living simply in a place that nurtures my creative inspiration and practice
I might not have accumulated the monetary wealth my parents had at my age, but I've discovered a different kind of richness—one that brings genuine joy and deep fulfilment every single day.
Beyond Conventional Metrics
Traditional business success often emphasises:
Constant growth and expansion
Revenue above all else
Team size and scale
Visibility and fame
Hustle culture and long hours
Competition and comparison
Status symbols
But what if we measured success by:
Creative fulfillment and meaning
Wellbeing and sustainable energy
Time freedom and flexibility
Depth of impact over breadth of reach
Alignment with personal values
Enjoyment of the day-to-day experience
The ability to bring your full self to your work
The Power of Enough
One of the most liberating concepts I've embraced is defining my "enough."
Enough income doesn't mean maximizing every revenue opportunity—it means sustainable sufficiency that supports security and comfort without constant pressure.
Enough impact doesn't mean reaching millions—it might mean creating profound transformation for those you do serve, whether that's ten people or ten thousand.
Enough recognition doesn't mean widespread fame—it means genuine appreciation from those whose opinions truly matter to you.
When you know your "enough," you create powerful boundaries that protect your energy and wellbeing. You stop chasing an ever-receding finish line and start celebrating when you've arrived at what genuinely serves you. And those milestones might shift and change, but they come from a place of genuine desire to grow and expand your experience of life, not from a place of striving to impress others.
Living Your Definition
Here's what I've learned: Your definition of success is as unique as your creative expression.
Perhaps prosperity for you means having enough clients to support yourself while maintaining plenty of quiet time for creation. Maybe it means freedom to paint what truly interests you rather than what sells. Perhaps it means building income streams that allow you to take breaks when your sensitive system needs rest.
The key is that your definition comes from your values, your needs, and your vision—not from inherited expectations or conventional business wisdom.
An Invitation
I invite you to pause and ask yourself:
What becomes possible when I measure success by what truly fulfills me rather than by conventional external metrics?
You don't need to mirror someone else's version of success. Your path to prosperity can be as unique as your creative practice, designed thoughtfully around your needs, values, and dreams.
After all, isn't that what we're really seeking? Not just a business that looks successful from the outside, but one that feels genuinely fulfilling from the inside—one that supports both meaningful contribution and personal wellbeing?
That's the kind of prosperity I believe is truly worth building.
What does success truly mean to you? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
About Nicola Newman
I'm a Creative Business Coach, Award-Winning Artist & Mentor for Creative Hearts who want to flourish, flow & prosper.
My passion is inspiring and supporting Creative Hearts to trust their inner wisdom and carve out a life that’s personally meaningful and fulfilling to them.
I share practical, evidence-based tools for Creative Hearts seeking to improve their lives or businesses. My work draws from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), mindfulness-based techniques, body-based practices, and neuroscience -- and my own creative living adventures -- among other approaches.
My mission is to support Creative Hearts to:
Dissolve creative blocks, develop a loving relationship with themselves, nurture their creativity and reframe the beliefs and patterns that keep them from following their heart and making the creative contribution they would love to make in the world.
My approach is to embrace gentleness, playfulness and self-care to navigate self-doubt and instead cultivate deep self-trust so you can truly enjoy the creative process, bring together your body of work, make money doing what you love and leave a creative legacy you’re proud of.
Let’s pour a cuppa and get to know one another, shall we? :) Read more about my story here.
