Guest Post: The Success Daily by Devin Partlow

You reap what you sow....eventually.

This, in a nutshell, is what keeps me motivated and dedicated to success. I believe that I will be rewarded proportional to the amount of work I do. Unfortunately in today's society we've started to glorify instant gratification like overnight celebrities, 'get rich quick' schemes, and 6 Minute Abs. We've engrained these ideas into our heads and now, if we don't see results instantly, we're not doing it 'right'. As sole founder and developer of Hooopla, I was immediately successful with the 1st release of Hooopla for Android, but what is success?

Success is progress.

“Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal,” Earl Nightingale said. If I have a worthwhile dream and I'm progressing toward this dream, I am successful. My goal is to make fun spontaneous and, even with Hooopla 1.0, I was one step closer to making that a reality.

Excellence is a journey, not a destination. In order to achieve excellence you must continue to pursue it. But yet, the fear of not being excellent deters me from pitching my app. My brain runs wild thoughts of humiliation, inadequacies, and doubt, but the opposite, sanguinity awaits once I conquer them. Just getting SOMETHING out there is important; its progress towards a goal.
From that I've concluded that fear is a deterrent of success. I don't let doubt of it not being 'right' stop me from demoing, pitching, or presenting Hooopla. Also this variety of success provides me with feedback, one of the most precious resources. I exploit feedback to make Hooopla 'right'. I also utilize my friends, the right friends are provident.

Success is stepping out your comfort zone.

I've successfully released 6 updates of Hooopla in a little over a month, but occasionally I feel listless. Even if a new update is on the brink, I just won't feel motivated to complete it. Is it that I'm tired of being successful? You ever wonder why people say, "The older you get, the faster time goes"? I believe that time is perceived as ‘flying’ because of the lack of distinguishable events. When you were a kid, every day there was something new to do, never a dull moment. The older you get the more responsibilities you get, but also the better you get at effortlessly handling these obligations. We strive to complete the most tasks COMFORTABLY. Same with success, I subconsciously streamline that as well. There's no sense of accomplishment in remaining comfortable though. So periodically I strive for a different type of success to break the monotony by stepping out of my comfort zone.

I step outside my comfort zone and go to Meetups, conferences, and networking events. As comfortable as I am with successfully releasing update after update, my goal won't truly be accomplished until Hooopla partners with local businesses to offer Instant Deals to its users. So periodically I pursue this different type of success to keep me motivated. As scary as it is to stand up and front of strangers and broadcast my dreams, I get the biggest sense of accomplishments when I overcome my fears.

Success is a lifestyle.

Above all, my friends are who motivate me to continue to dedicate myself to being successful. Hanging around these guys, I almost have no choice but to be successful or I'm just not going to fit in. It’s said that you're the average of your 5 closest friends; my closest friends are all dedicated to being successful. You must surround yourself with the right people to be successful. The inception of Hooopla itself is directly attributable to hanging out with my friends.

The Success Daily
Daily, all I have to do is one thing to progress a little more toward my dream and I continue to succeed. Being successful in itself is motivational. Done daily, it becomes a routine.

- Devin Partlow

Mr. Partlow, a software engineer for a government relations company, is also the Software Developer and Co-Founder of Kith.ly, which evolved from Hooopla LLC. Partlow has found much success daily and over the last year and Kith.ly is now among the top 50 startups in Baltimore.

This blog post was originally written by Devin Partlow for the Tru Story Blog. Please contact the owner of Tru Story and The Educated Emotion, Leslie McGraw, for reprint or other inquiry.