What Does Success Mean To Me?

For this post I decided to pause listening to Pandora (Michael Bublé station to be exact.) You will understand why later on, trust me.

Why would I ask myself this question? Success to many people vary depending on morals, standards, and overall level of happiness. What does success mean to me?

Above is a photo of my Associates Degree (middle), Graduation Medal (left) and School Coin (right). On the right you will see my School Coin. Traditionally every first year student receives one at the beginning of the school year. The coin represents when I entered culinary school (2008-2009), my first year of college; above my headrest (or on my desk when I stayed in the residence halls) is where it rested.The motivation of looking at the medal is indescribable. Long nights of homework (including no sleep at all), six-hour labs for three trimesters (two trimesters of my first year and one trimester of my second year.)

On the left is the medal all Culinary Arts and Baking & Pastry Majors received this medal at Graduation May 2010. Including one year of free membership with the ACF (American Culinary Federation) organization for graduating from the Culinary Arts program. Of course the big blue part of the photo is the cover for my Associate's Degree!

Success to me means accomplishing all of my goals, working as hard as I can to achieve greatness! My biggest goal is to move to NYC, work in the restaurants among the best in the United States, create and open my own restaurant and win my first Michelin Star (of course I want to win more, however, the first start will be the sweetest.)

The first blog that I began following when I created my blogs is by Brian Dubé "The New York Daily Photo." His blog, his photos and his stories of New York personally, historically and even from the point of view of others he include in his blogs are amazing! It has been without a doubt a confidence booster in my journey on moving to NYC.

One day I was viewing a close friend's Facebook page and she posted a video titled "Secrets to Success." Me being a curious person, I decided to view it. Eric Thomas, motivation speaker (greatest motivational speaker I have ever heard), has also been a major confidence booster for myself. My favorite quote (from him and in my favorite quotes of all time) is when he is telling the story of The Guru and The Young Man...

"When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breath, then you'll be successful." 

To answer the question of "What Does Success Mean To Me" is the latter quote which I love so much I have to type it again and make it personal. "When I want to succeed as bad as I want to breath, then I'll be successful."

*Note: The reason why I paused my Pandora earlier is because I listened to the Eric Thomas video "Secrets to Success (Part 1)." Below is the links to both parts of "Secrets to Success by Eric Thomas." I also advise if you have a Youtube account to subscribe to his channel, watch his videos and share them with friends. Some of the best motivation you could ever get.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fsm-QbN9r8 (Secrets To Success: Part I)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftN1xPXFDzI&feature=related (Secrets To Success: Part II)