What is 'Real' success?

Success. The word itself brings to mind visions of tremendous of wealth and prestige. But, honestly, when pertaining to those involved in endeavors such as writing and poetry, what indicates success? After reading about both famed British poet John Keats and obscure American author John Kennedy Toole its plain to see that any sort of recognition they achieved happened post mortem. I hear about authors who ride the coat tails of my chosen genre when in all honesty they are anything but horror and have achieved a tremendous amount of wealth. In truth, I have mixed feelings with the subject, altogether. In my honest opinion, true success is prospering on your own terms and staying who you are genuinely. If you have to bend to the world's terms, I'm sure whatever material you come up with will lack integrity, especially if you write in the horror genre, like I, myself, do. That's a question I often ask myself: Is it worth it to achieve the materialism that so many of us value beyond all other things by being a basic slave to the cares and utterances of others? A reasonable person adjusts himself to the world. A unreasonable person adjusts the world to himself. Therefore, in writing as in everything else in between, the only room for any sort of progress rests solely on the unreasonable person.