Why redefining success is the ultimate business growth strategy

Any opinions, views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of Hiscox.

If you had asked 18-year-old me where I saw myself in five years, I would’ve told you—with complete confidence—that I’d be working my way up the corporate ladder to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Ambitious? Maybe. But if you knew me back then, you’d know I had an unshakable belief in myself and an intense desire to make money. So intense, in fact, that I started a baking business during my senior year of high school, which I very cleverly named Whisk. In 2011, I made my first-ever $200 profit by selling cupcakes, cookies, and cheesecakes to classmates and teachers. And once I got a taste of entrepreneurship, I knew it was something I wanted to pursue full-time.

But in that era of my life, I didn’t know any entrepreneurs. I grew up in a two-parent Jamaican household where we prided ourselves on the value of hard work. My dad, a technician at the United States Postal Service, and my mom, a homemaker who raised four children and played the roles of teacher, doctor, and chef, always instilled in me the importance of investing in my education. Naturally, attending college felt like the right path for me after I graduated from high school. Surely my professors would hand me the secret sauce to entrepreneurship, right? So, I left suburbia and enrolled at Georgia State University.

📌 Fast forward to my sophomore year of college, and I was sitting in front of my academic counselor, on the verge of tears. I had attempted (and failed) both Accounting I and Accounting II twice. These were the two classes that stood between me and a business management degree. My counselor gently suggested I consider changing my major, and that conversation rocked me to my core. But I knew I couldn’t give up on what I wanted, so I decided to hustle. I started applying to every internship I could find because in my mind, if I couldn’t learn how to run a business in the classroom, I’d at least learn it in the real world. And honestly, that plan wasn’t half bad. By the time I graduated, I had a job lined up at an advertising agency and was ready to step into a career in marketing.

At first, I was excited. Marketing wasn’t what I had pictured, but the skills I was gaining were helping me learn the ins and outs of running a business, especially since the ad agency had just opened a brand-new office in the city and was basically operating like a startup. Everything felt perfect until about six months after I started in my role. I began to feel stressed, anxious, and unexcited about showing up to work. Eventually, I recognized that something needed to change, so I quit.

From that point, quitting became a back-to-back pattern across several jobs. I would get a new job, revel in the newness—the opportunities to explore a new industry, work with new people, and acquire new skills—and after some time at the company, I’d get this gut feeling that I had to leave. Whether it was toxic work environments, terrible bosses, or teams that were stretched way too thin, I realized that something wasn’t clicking for me, and that something was impacting my physical and mental health. 

🎯 In 2021, I was working as the head of social for a beverage startup based in San Francisco. As was my M.O., I was thriving in the first six months, and once again found myself experiencing that familiar, gut-wrenching feeling. I was dreading meetings and feeling physically sick from anxiety and exhaustion. One day, after a very real conversation with a teammate, I thought to myself, “Why am I still doing this?”

I wasn’t happy, yet I was doing a job that I felt like I had to do. Why was that?

💪🏽 Well, like many young Black girls, I grew up with the mentality that I had to work twice as hard to get the opportunities I wanted, especially if I wanted to successfully navigate corporate America. I had to stay at the office later than the rest of my team. I had to take on work outside of my job description. I had to be more than good. I had to be excellent. That’s what I learned from watching characters on TV. That’s what I learned from watching working women in my family. That’s what I learned from my mentors.  

So, if I was doing what I was supposed to do, why wasn’t I happy? The answer to that question truly altered my brain chemistry. Simply put, I wasn’t happy because I was striving for a goal that was rooted in someone else’s definition of success.

After leaving that job, I decided to take the leap and go out on my own. I wanted to get back to the root of what 18-year-old me wanted—to be an entrepreneur. After some time recalibrating and rediscovering what I needed my job to be, I decided to launch my social creative agency, The Em Dash Co.

In the three years I’ve been running my business, I've learned a great deal, but the most important lesson I’ve learned is that I cannot be successful if my heart isn’t in the work. Launching my agency wasn’t just about working on projects for the Netflixes, Timberlands, and LinkedIns of the world. It was also about having agency over my life.

💡✍ At my big age of 32, I now know that to do my best work, I have to prioritize my mental health, be very intentional about choosing the right partners and clients, and establish a ton of boundaries. This means I say “no” a lot. It means that I don’t take meetings on Fridays. It means that I work from wherever I’m calling home at the moment. It means I don’t work more than 30 hours a week. It means that I focus on sustainable growth rather than fast growth, and this business model has worked for me. This year, I’m on track to generate $250,000 in revenue. I’ve had more clients than ever. My work is being recognized in industry publications and by leaders I admire. But most importantly, I’m happy, and that’s what success looks like to me.

So, if I had any advice for anyone trying to rediscover what success looks like for themselves, I’d say: think about what brings you joy and let that be your north star.  

📢 Whether you work for yourself or someone else, the drive to succeed has to start with what matters to you and only you.