Success looks impressive. Significance lasts forever.
We celebrate success on social media, proudly posting new titles, promotions, new houses, and big wins. But significance is quieter. It is about what endures after the applause fades.
I have spent much of my life wrestling with what success really means. Is it becoming a CEO? Making six figures? Owning a home and raising a family? The world offers a thousand definitions. But when I slow down long enough to listen to my heart, I know success has to mean more than titles, money, and applause.
At some point, even people who seem successful start asking a deeper question: Does my life matter? Am I leaving a legacy? They stop chasing success and start longing for something more lasting. Significance.
Few stories capture that shift better than Maya Moore’s.
To me, Maya Moore is the greatest of all time, the GOAT of women’s basketball. Her record speaks for itself. In high school, her team went 125-3, winning three state championships. At the University of Connecticut, she led her team to an incredible record of 150-4, including a 90-game winning streak, two national championships, and four straight trips to the Final Four.
Do the math. Between high school and college, her combined record was 275 wins and just 7 losses, with three state titles and two national championships.
Then she went on to the WNBA. In just eight seasons, she reached the Finals six times and won four championships with the Minnesota Lynx. She added Olympic gold medals, overseas titles, and an MVP award. Her resume defines success.
But at the peak of her athletic ability, Maya Moore walked away. She stepped away from the spotlight, from fame, and from what many people spend their whole lives chasing. Why? Because she wanted something deeper. She wanted to live with significance.
Moore dedicated her time to fighting for the freedom of Jonathan Irons, a man wrongfully convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison. She poured her heart, resources, and influence into helping overturn his conviction. After years of work, Irons was released in 2020. The same woman who once dominated basketball courts worldwide chose instead to fight for justice and give someone else their second chance. If that is not significance, I do not know what is.
Maya Moore’s story reminds me that success is not the goal; purpose is. She had everything the world calls winning: awards, applause, and records. But she wanted something that would last longer than a trophy. She chose people over platform. Service over spotlight.
Over time, I have learned something simple but sobering about success. I once knew a CEO who, one month, was the picture of confidence when I passed him in the airport. The next time I saw him, just a month later, he had been let go. His title was gone. His confidence was gone. You could see the weight of it on him, as if his worth had walked out the door with his job.
Watching him made me realize how fragile success really is and how quickly it can all disappear.
But significance is different. It cannot be taken from you. It is built on who you are, not what you have. It is measured by how you serve, how you love, and how you lift others, not by how many people know your name. Success is what people applaud. Significance is what endures.
And when you start to understand that difference, everything about how you lead and live begins to change.
So maybe the better question is not, “Am I successful?” but “Am I significant?” When the applause fades, when the titles shift, when the paycheck stops, what will still be true about your life?
Here are four ways to pursue significance this week:
- Audit your calendar. Look at where your best time and energy are going. Do they reflect what matters most?
- Reflect on purpose. Take time to think about what truly lasts. What contribution do you want your life to make beyond yourself?
- Invest in people. Significance is always about relationships, not just results. The most lasting legacy you will ever build is in the lives you touch and the people you lift.
- Practice quiet generosity. Do something meaningful for someone who cannot repay you. The best kind of giving leaves no fingerprints.
Significance does not happen by accident. It is built choice by choice, moment by moment. Every one of those moments can count for something greater than yourself.
The world defines success by what you achieve. Success may stop when the trophies do, but significance keeps growing long after the spotlight fades.
Because in the end, success is about what you build for yourself. Significance is about what you build that outlasts you. Real success was never meant to be measured by what you have, but by how you use it to lift others.
