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The word success gets used more often than almost any other word in professional development conversations, and almost no one stops to ask what it actually means to them personally. They are chasing something they have never defined. They are measuring themselves against a standard they never chose. That is not ambition. That is confusion with a busy schedule attached to it. My Definition of Success I define success as freedom. Not freedom in an abstract philosophical sense.

A yoga instructor changed how I think about every decision I make. Not because of yoga. Because she asked one question at the start of every class: why are you here today? Not as a philosophy exercise. As a practice. She wanted you to set an intention before you moved a single inch. Leadership and communication skills require the same thing. If you cannot answer why, you are not leading. You are reacting. The Yoga Instructor's Lesson Setting an intention sounds simple. It is

It doesn't matter if Mark Cuban is in your corner. If you walk into a mentorship relationship doing the wrong things, nothing changes. The advice lands and disappears. The sessions feel good in the moment and produce nothing afterward. Professional development doesn't happen to you because you found a great mentor. It happens because you became a great mentee, and those are two completely different skills. I'm saying this from personal experience. A mentor once sat across fr