In high school, I was voted “Most Likely to Succeed.”

Did I believe it back then? Of course I did. I was an egotistical smart aleck. I also had a limited view of success: acclaim and fortune. But early rejection plus an aimless career path led me to doubt writing would ever work out for me.

A few years after college, I blogged this in a now-deleted post: “Being noosed with 'most likely to succeed' is like lugging an albatross to every job interview, new relationship or writing endeavor.”

Was it really that bad? No. Did it sound decent to me to write at the time? Yes. (And yes, the English majors get points for knowing I was channeling Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.)

A few years later, a reporter from the Wall Street Journal read that post and interviewed me. Thus “‘Most Likely to Succeed’ Burden” was published on May 11, 2011, with a high school photo of me forever immortalized online. (At least I still had hair back then.)

Here’s the salient part, after they quote the albatross line: "Recalling these expectations just deepened his self-doubt during a six-year period after college when he wasn't working in his chosen field, as a writer, he says.”

When the article came out, I still wasn't exactly working as a writer. I was also coming off a few of the hardest years of my life. But here's what happened next:

One year later, I got married.

Three years later, I launched my writing business.

Four years later, we had our first (and only) child.

Six years later, I was a small part of Atomic Habits.

And today, fourteen years later, I still get to work with authors writing amazing books that seek to help others.

There’s no acclaim. There’s no fortune. But there’s persistence, faith, and the joy of just doing the work.

That's all success to me.

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How do you define success as a writer?

When you let your grandest ambitions as a writer sneak past your multilayered defenses, where do you find yourself?

What do you hope beyond hope that your writing can do for you?

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