Rant alert:

"Successful" is a strange word. The way it gets used in common parlance seems to mean a very specific outcome: if you're a man, that you wear a suit, people look up to you based on your job, and you have lots of money. If you're a woman, you need to also somehow be in charge of looking after kids and making them bullshit crafts off Pinterest. We all know what "successful" is meant to mean.

But in the dictionary, it means accomplishing your aim. Over the last couple of years, I've cut my salary by taking more time off to spend at home with my baby/toddler and turned down an expat job for the same reason. The numbers in my bank account are lower than what they could be, but I'm more successful than I've ever been in my life - I'm achieving my goals, which are to put a roof over my head, play peekaboo with my baby, and spend as much time with family as possible and as little time at work as possible.

Financial success, by definition, is just achieving your life goals with respect to money. Those goals don't need to be "make the numbers go up at all costs".

(my rant is largely unrelated to this article, just the abuse of the word 'successful' sets me off. I'll get back in my box now)