To answer your actual question about success, it is simple to define and hard to action for many people. "Sell something that people want" is how Paul Graham p

To answer your actual question about success, it is simple to define and hard to action for many people. "Sell something that people want" is how Paul Graham puts it but with a bit more flesh, I would say that being successful in business is about being able to evaluate all moving parts of a company, see what isn't working and fix it. If you are not getting leads in the door, there is an issue with marketing, that you should understand might relate to the person in the role or the lack of resource etc. even without understanding much about marketing. If you are not making money, the product is not valuable enough to people or you are not selling it for enough money. How can I find out what it is worth? How can I evaluate whether this product is worthwhile? You only need to see the questions and work out where to get answers, you don't always have answers yourself. Lastly, any business is about people and you need to be self-aware and confidant enough to not take things personally, to confront things that need confronting, to evaluate candidates effectively and to sometimes tell people to p*ss off. Most successful business people I have met are fairly tough to the point of seeming uncaring so that probably says something about the reality of running a business!