Success can often be society’s most overused yet least understood measure. In the business landscape, it may be reduced to a narrow checklist: a company’s valuation, revenue streams, the prestige of one’s title, the scale of operations, the cars, the clubs, and the postcodes. These metrics can be easy to quantify, easy to compare, and easy to chase, yet they rarely reveal who actually feels fulfilled after reaching them. Many business owners might come to this realization after years of sprinting toward a socially-approved finish line, a finish line that could end up feeling empty.
This disconnect is at the heart of Saahil Mehta’s work with ambitious business owners. A business owner, author, success coach, and passionate mountaineer, Mehta notes that while no two people share the same fingerprint, many share the same inherited definition of success.
“We’ve conducted a study with over a hundred business owners,” he shares. “And what consistently emerges is that success for many is linked to wealth and, to some extent, fame. But when people finally reach those goals and still feel unfulfilled, it’s because that definition was never theirs to begin with. It is often influenced by family, society, media, or comparison.”
The problem, Mehta emphasizes, isn’t the lack of effort or ambition. It’s a lack of clarity and alignment. He argues that many leaders have never paused long enough to ask the simple yet life-changing question: “What does success mean to me?”
Without that clarity, he believes that people continue climbing mountains that were never meant for them, chasing inherited dreams and mistaking motion for meaning. According to him, the consequences of this disillusionment can appear as confusion, dissatisfaction, impostor syndrome, and a lingering loneliness that many leaders may not speak about.
“As a business owner, you may not always express what you’re feeling,” he says. “You can’t tell your team you feel uncertain; you can’t tell them you’re doubting yourself. So you bottle it up. And when you compare yourself to others, you’re comparing only one slice of their life. It’s not a fair comparison.”
This search for clarity is what inspired Mehta’s framework for the Seven Summits of Success, a methodology that is designed to help business owners define success on their terms and discover the internal blocks that are holding them back from achieving it. Often, Mehta notes, these blocks, which he calls internal clutter, may be manifested through behavioral traits, patterns, or assumptions.
“People climb the Seven Summits, the tallest mountain on each continent, to conquer the world,” he says. “But what about conquering your inner world? The ones that determine your fulfillment, your relationships, your health, your peace of mind?”
According to Mehta, this internal clutter is different for every individual, but identifying it is the first step toward true fulfillment. His method provides a starting point for leaders who feel overwhelmed. “I believe that every business owner has at least one of these areas of emotional clutter, but they need someone to hold up a mirror to identify it. That’s our goal,” he says.
Through his study with business owners, he uncovered behavioral traits, fears, and belief systems that can obstruct progress. He highlights that many leaders discovered blind spots they hadn’t recognized, patterns they couldn’t see alone. “Even as a coach myself, I still have a coach,” he says. “You can’t see your own blind spots. That’s the nature of a blind spot.”
Once someone defines their success and works on their internal clutter, Mehta believes the real transformation begins. He guides individuals through the essential process of identifying and dismantling obsolete mindsets, encouraging them to deeply explore how these outdated belief systems, reinforced by society, might be hindering personal progress.
After addressing these external pressures, Mehta believes business owners can begin their journey toward unearthing and overcoming these invisible barriers and working toward their success summits. “The key is moving toward success that’s wholly defined by you, not by anyone else,” he says. “Because every step you take that’s closer to where you want to go is one step closer to fulfillment, and one step further away from regret.”
He emphasizes that this clarity can also prevent the unconscious self-sacrifice that many high-performers might normalize. “Leaders often say they’re putting family or health aside just for a month, but the month turns into years, and then it’s no longer just a sacrifice. It’s a lifestyle choice,” he says, highlighting the importance of challenging leaders to be honest with themselves. “If something is truly a priority, it cannot be the first thing sacrificed,” he adds.
With defined summits, Mehta believes decisions can become far easier. He looks at the overall impact, which he calls the net effect. “It’s about preventing decision-making with blinders on, ensuring that the decisions you make have a positive effect on your summits rather than taking you down a path of potential regrets,” he explains.
Mehta’s mission is to help business leaders to stress less, grow faster, and build a zero regret life. His work as a success coach, author, and speaker spans more than 20 countries, guiding business owners, executives, and high-growth teams toward clarity, momentum, and inner elevation. Through his Break Free book and leadership tools, coaching, and retreats, he equips people to climb the right summits faster.
His upcoming book, co-authored with Dr. Marshall Goldsmith and to be released in 2026, expands on this research. For those ready to begin the journey, Mehta offers a complimentary 30-minute webinar that enables business owners to discover their personal Seven Summits of Success, along with exercises that could help define what success means to them.
“Ultimately, we’re all after success, but we’re never actually chasing something tangible. It’s not wealth, nor titles, nor trophies. We’re after a feeling,” he says. “And perhaps the best way to claim that feeling is to dare define it.”
