How Do You Define Success?

Last night I had dinner with an old friend. We were talking about the nature of work and supervision, the tenuous lines between micro-management, appropriate management, and the disengaged.

He paused and said, "I think success happens when you can be left alone..." From his perspective, success is about being able to choose when and how you work with other people.

From my perspective, success is more than the end result--it is often the process of working with people to make the results happen. I believe in the collaborative process and often feel that I do my best work when I am actively working with others.

Here's a simple question: How do you define success? And has your definition of success changed since the recession started? Do you have a different perspective on what constitutes success? Or has it remained consistent?

There's no right or wrong answer here, I'm just curious.