Success as a Personal Value: Meaning, Examples, and Related Values
What Is Success as a Core Value?
Success values achieving meaningful goals and recognized outcomes. People high in Success set targets, measure progress, and celebrate milestones in work, relationships, learning, health, and long‑term personal projects.
Why Success Matters
Honoring Success helps you:
- convert vision into results,
- build credibility and momentum,
- motivate teams with clear wins,
- learn through performance feedback.
How Success Shows Up (High vs. Low Expression)
High Expression
- defines metrics and deadlines,
- tracks leading indicators,
- prioritizes high-leverage work,
- iterates toward targets.
Low Expression
- avoids goal-setting,
- confuses activity with impact,
- resists measurement,
- drifts without closure.
Common Challenges of High Success
- work-life imbalance,
- identity over-tied to outcomes,
- neglecting relationships or health,
- pressure to continually “win.”
Success in Conflict With Other Values
Success vs. Family
Family requires presence and time; Success may demand intensive focus.
Tension: relational availability vs. achievement drive.
Success vs. Health
Health enforces recovery; Success may push grind habits.
Tension: sustainable capacity vs. relentless output.
Examples of Success in Daily Life
- Defining clear quarterly outcomes.
- Doing weekly reviews of progress.
- Saying no to low-impact busywork.
- Celebrating completed goals.
Strengths and Risks of Success as a Value
Strengths
For those who value success, results are what counts. They are very effective in achieving their goals and can sacrifice a lot on the way to success.
Risks
It is worth verifying from time to time how we define success and what price we are willing to pay for it.
From the Global Values Research
How often people rank Success
Across the 2,099,004 assessments completed on personalvalu.es since 2020.
- Appearance rateof assessments rank it in their ten. 23rd of 62 values.
- 17.5%
- First placeof assessments put it first. 24th of 62 on this measure.
- 1.5%
- Top threeof assessments put it in the top three. 27% of those who rank it.
- 4.7%
- Average positionis its mean position, out of ten, where it is ranked at all.
- 5.7
Success is ranked less often with age, from 23.4% among participants under 18 to 9.9% among those 65 and over. Men rank it more often than women, at 19.5% against 13.9%.
Age and gender from the assessments of December 2025 to September 2026 whose participants gave them.
