Success looks different depending on who you ask—and for today’s most impactful Black founders, the definition often stretches far beyond the metrics that make it onto a pitch deck. It’s measured in the lives changed, the legacies built, and the deep sense of purpose that keeps them moving even when the road gets hard.
We asked members of the Dreamers & Doers community to reflect on what truly drives them, how they define success beyond revenue and growth, and what has consistently carried them through the most difficult seasons of building a business. Their answers are honest, grounding, and deeply personal, offering a window into the resilience and vision behind their success.
Whatever season of business you’re in, we hope their reflections remind you that the most meaningful measures of success are often the ones you define for yourself.
Naji Jackson
CEO & Founder of The Niche Group, a private advisory practice built for founders, CEOs, and principals providing the operational infrastructure, talent, and lifestyle architecture that let them lead without friction.
Success is invisibility done well. If I’ve done my job, the client I’m supporting never has to think about the thing I handled. I’d rather build quiet, durable systems than chase visible wins, and I choose decisions that hold up under pressure over ones that just look good on paper. That’s the ethos of my leadership.
The people I serve trust me with the parts of their lives they can’t hand to just anyone, and that responsibility tends to be more grounding than any external metric. When things get hard, I go back to why I started: to give high-performing people back their time and peace of mind.
Natasha Durkins
Founder & CEO of Fiercely Joyful LLC, a leadership advisory and executive coaching firm helping senior leaders and founders lead with radical honesty and sustainable performance rooted in joy.
After walking away from a stable executive career at the FAA, I realized that my next chapter—and what success would look like—had to be built on my own terms. Today, every decision runs through the lens of who I am, what I value, and what I won’t tolerate. When the people I work with leave more true to themselves than when they arrived, I’ve been successful.
When I was starting out, a friend told me that the only difference between successful entrepreneurs and the ones who didn’t make it is they didn’t give up, and that’s stayed with me. In challenging moments, I reconnect with my why and give myself permission to move at the pace my capacity allows instead of pushing until I break.
Rhabia Cowell
Founder & Executive Director of Pivot Partnership, a workforce advancement program for women who have been displaced from the workforce.
My primary success metric isn’t the number of women who complete our program. Instead, I focus on whether those women walk into real jobs believing they deserve them. That belief—shaped by my own experience of being capable but overlooked—is why I built my business around real employer partnerships instead of training alone.
I know how much work there still is to do, and it keeps me moving. Every woman I haven’t reached yet and every employer who hasn’t partnered with us yet reminds me that the mission isn’t finished. I know what it feels like to need someone in your corner, and since I don’t want any woman to face that alone, I can get in touch with my purpose when things get hard.
Markita Billups
Founder & Principal of Blackbird Strategic Solutions, partnering with healthcare founders and service-based organizations to navigate high-stakes growth through fractional COO support, strategic advisory, and executive coaching.
Beyond revenue, I define success by the quality of impact I am able to create: for my clients, for their teams, for the communities their organizations serve, and for my own family. That definition has made me more discerning about the work I take on, because I want to build a business that creates meaningful outcomes for clients while also creating freedom, stability, and generational possibility for my husband, our daughters, and me.
During difficult seasons, I remember that I’m creating more options for my family and showing my daughters what it looks like to build with courage, faith, and strategy. Often, this means stepping away from the noise long enough to remember that I am not just trying to win a moment; I am building something that can change the trajectory of our lives.
Catharine Montgomery
Founder & CEO of Better Together Agency, an AI-forward communications and marketing agency that builds mission-driven campaigns for nonprofits, advocacy groups, and companies working toward equity and social change.
At their most successful, our campaigns allow the people they’re built for to see themselves represented accurately. This is true for the AI tools we use to help build it, too. We audit every AI tool before it touches client work, asking whose data trained it and whose experience got left out.We want to be a leader in overcoming gender and racial bias in artificial intelligence systems, which has shaped how I hire, how I choose technology partners, and which projects I turn down.
I started my business after watching organizations talk about equity without changing how they treated the people affected by their decisions. When a season gets hard, I go back to the outcomes we’ve delivered for specific clients, a policy that changed, or a story that got told accurately because of our contributions. That’s what the work is for.
Karee Laing
Founder & Brand Strategist of Studio SB Agency, a branding and brand strategy agency for founder-led and growing businesses.
Success is whether the thing I built still fits the person I’ve become. I closed a business that worked on paper but didn’t fit who I was or who I wanted to be—and I rebuilt it into the agency I lead now, which has a narrower client list and more depth. That’s also why I’m building MOXIEMO (and AI CMO) right now, instead of waiting until it’s polished. I’m creating something that actually holds and is true to who I am today.
Remembering that I’ve rebuilt before—and that the rebuild was always the right call, even when it looked like a step backward—is helpful as I continue to pursue success by my own definition. On hard days, I get back around a table with other women founders. The fastest way out of my own head is realizing that I am not alone.
Enoma Osakue
CEO & Operations Consultant of Stackrie, helping founder-led teams choose and implement tech stacks that maximize efficiency through automation and AI.
Personally, I define success as accomplishing what I set out to do. When we’re doing our job well, clients feel the benefit of our work and collaboration well past the initial engagement, not just in the moment. We show up daily in a way that changes how people experience work itself, improving quality of life for both the people I employ and the clients we serve.
To persevere at low points, I remind myself that life has seasons, and that the job is to be present in whichever one I’m in. There’s no point in chasing the one that came before. Even if I’m not seeing the results I want to see, it’s important for me to reflect on whether I am who I want to be.
Kimone Napier
Founder & CEO of Hire Breakthrough, helping founders, organizations, and government agencies build scalable hiring, people operations, and workforce development systems that create high-performing teams and sustainable growth.
I define success by the systems that continue creating impact long after I’m no longer in the room. Whether I’m helping a founder build their first people operations infrastructure or partnering with government agencies to strengthen workforce systems, my goal is to create solutions that outlast any single project. That perspective has led me to prioritize sustainable transformation over quick wins and to build a business rooted in long-term impact rather than short-term growth.
My purpose has always been bigger than my circumstances. During difficult seasons—including building my business while navigating health setbacks—I reconnect with the people and communities my work is designed to serve, reminding myself that resilience isn’t just part of my story, but part of the legacy I’m building.
Lakeya Cherry
CEO & Founder of Lakeya Cherry LLC, a dynamic executive coaching and consulting business that empowers leaders and organizations to maximize their potential.
I spent years chasing success by checking every box and reaching every milestone. Somewhere along the way, I realized I was building an impressive career, but that I also wanted to build a life I didn’t need a break from. Today, success is about creating both: meaningful work and a life that leaves room for joy, curiosity, rest, adventure, and the people I love.
When things get tough, I like to remind myself that I’ve been through hard seasons before, and somehow I’ve always found my way through them. I lean on people I trust, give myself space to regain perspective, and remember that many experiences I would never have chosen have shaped me into the leader I am today.
Charney Robinson-Williams
Founder of Noire Impact, a strategy studio reimagining how capital flows, culture is shaped, and stories are told.
It’s not enough to close a deal or run a high-performing campaign. I evaluate success based on who gets access to a given room and what happens once they’re in it. I lead with the belief that power should be shared by design instead of earned through proximity, and that’s shaped every partnership, project, and room I’ve built.
My two sons and the legacy of entrepreneurship that my grandfather left our family keep me grounded. It’s never about who we are, but whose we are. Remembering that carries me through the hard moments.
Yéwándé Faloyin
CEO & Founder of OTITỌ Leadership & People Development, partnering to improve your leadership and performance by transforming how you show up.
Earlier in my career, success was about the next milestone: the next promotion, the next achievement, the next box to tick. Becoming an executive coach changed that. Helping leaders reach their own potential, build fulfilling careers, and create meaningful impact has shown me that success isn’t just about what we achieve; it’s about who we become and the difference we make. That’s why I’m intentional about the clients I work with and why every engagement starts by asking, “What does success look like?” I’m far more interested in the long-term impact they want to have than simply solving today’s challenge.
Some of the toughest moments in my career have gone on to create the biggest opportunities. When things get hard, I don’t wonder why it’s happening. Instead, I reflect on what the challenge is making possible and how I can use it to my advantage. Along with the trust I’ve built in myself, that shift in perspective helps me move through difficult seasons with curiosity instead of fear.
Alicia White
Founder & CEO of Project Petals and Blue SKYie, mission-driven organizations advancing innovation and sustainability by developing leaders, building transformative technology, and creating solutions that drive measurable, lasting impact.
Throughout my journey as an impact entrepreneur, I have defined success by the lasting impact my business and organization create: lives improved, opportunities created, and stronger futures built. That perspective has shaped every major decision I’ve made, leading me to prioritize long-term solutions, empower emerging leaders, and develop innovative strategies that create measurable impact. No matter the challenge or opportunity, one question continues to guide my leadership: Will this create meaningful, lasting impact?
Building mission-driven organizations is deeply rewarding, but it also comes with setbacks and moments when resources are not always readily available. What has consistently kept me moving forward is remembering why I started. I think about the communities we serve, the young leaders who are counting on opportunities to grow, and the entrepreneurs and change-makers working to build a more sustainable and inclusive future. That purpose is bigger than any individual challenge.
Lona Vincent
Founder of WOW Health (World of Women’s Health), the first global discovery platform with a living view of the companies, investors, allies, and data fueling women’s health innovation.
I love Maya Angelou’s definition of success: “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”
Building from zero is never easy. The uncertainty is constant. But knowing that this work matters, that it’s deeply personal, and that I’m not doing it alone helps me stay motivated. I’m also just driven to win. Fail fast, learn fast, whatever it takes—but win.
When I need to, I silence the noise and remind myself that I’m getting to do something I’ve always wanted to do, and that building anything worth building comes with vulnerability. I also revisit those wins. They remind me that nothing lasts forever. That includes the hard days and the easy ones.
All individuals featured in this article are members of Dreamers & Doers, a highly curated community and PR Hype Machine™ amplifying extraordinary women entrepreneurs and leaders through authentic connections, credibility-boosting visibility, and opportunities that accelerate big dreams. (Learn more about membership here.)
