You can figure out what sort of success you’re seeking by asking two questions.

Question 1: Do you want to be accepted by a tribe, or create a tribe?

Question 2: Do you care more about success now, or after you’re gone?

If you want to be accepted by a tribe, you’re looking at either credentialed success (acceptance by the governing body) or critical success (acceptance by the cool kids in your industry).

If you want to create a tribe, that’s either commercial success (lots of customers) or commercial success (lots of fans).

If you care more about success right now, that’s either credentialed success or commercial success. Nobody remembers a random marine biology Ph.D. from 20 years ago, and if Coca-Cola disappeared tomorrow, very few people would genuinely miss it.

If you care more about success after you’re gone, that’s either critical success or cultural success. Win an academy award, and you are enshrined in a long line of award winners, never forgotten. Make Rocky Horror Picture Show, and 50 years later people will still be playing dress-up to your film.

Of course, its possible to have different types of success in different areas.

C.S. Lewis received an Honorary Doctorate in Divinity (critical success), as well as creating enduring fiction with the Chronicles of Narnia (cultural success).

And of course, these are not mutually exclusive. You can experience success both now and after you’re gone.

But if you want to be a writer, you’d know:

  1. Credentialed = get a Creative Writing MFA
  2. Critical = win a Pulitzer Prize
  3. Commercial = write sleazy romance novels (they make the most money)
  4. Cultural = create the next Lord of the Rings

And that the skills and pathways to each of those types of success look very, very different.