How Do Business Owners Define Success? : CPA Trendlines.

US accountancy web site CPA Trendlines features a fascinating graph resulting from a survey by the Enterprise Council on Small Business. They asked business owners to define what satisfaction means to them. Business owners said maintaining a healthy work/life balance was the single biggest factor in their definition of success.

CPA says that:

surprisingly found that “satisfaction” was the primary way that they defined success, followed by “growth.”

The overall result was:

I don't find this surprising at all. If people maximise it is their overall well-being that they seek to enhance. The myth of profit maximisation is just that: a myth. It's one perpetuated by big business as an argument for unbridled growth. But no one in their right minds thinks it enhances well being.

Hat tip to Dennis Howlett.