There are a lot of reasons I’ve found success running my own business. Many of those reasons are because of the countless times I’ve failed — or rather the countless times I’ve learned from my failures. But that story’s coming later.

I owe so much of my success to the time, advice, and patience of those who have walked this path before me and were willing to share what they learned. Truthfully, it’s one of the biggest reasons why I created 40 to 40. If I can help just one person embarking on their own journey, this will have all been worth it.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was from a colleague I met by chance during a networking event. We hit it off and stayed in touch, grabbing coffee and sharing stories when we could. She was in a unique position given her expertise was helping entrepreneurs scale their businesses in healthy, sustainable ways.

So when she said something that challenged all of that, it stopped me in my tracks.

She said (I’m paraphrasing), “Trey, it’s okay to stay small on purpose.”

I was a solopreneur at the time, still am, but back then I thought I wanted to grow a big agency. That’s what I saw everywhere I looked, so I assumed it’s what I was supposed to want.

When she said that, my world split open. The pressure I’d put on myself, based on what I thought success had to look like, just vanished.

There’s no single definition of success, or happiness, or even what it means to be an entrepreneur. It’s up to you to define those things for yourself.