I'm rereading the classic Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun, and one line jumped out at me: "You must have a passion to succeed."
It made me stop and ask: what does success look like in cybersecurity?
Cybersecurity isn't like war campaigns where you conquer territory and raise your flag. There's no finish line. No end zone dance. So how do we measure success in a field that's never really "done"?
Here's what I concluded.
Success isn't a destination
In cybersecurity, success is staying in the fight. It's keeping your defenses sharp even when nothing seems to be happening. You're not chasing perfection. You're working to build a system that improves over time, adapts to threats, and bounces back fast when things go sideways.
It's not a big splashy win. It's resilience.
It's consistency.
It's discipline.
The battles are just quieter
You're not leading cavalry charges. You're leading patch cycles, rolling out MFA, chasing down shadow IT, tightening IAM policies, and preparing for the next audit. That might not sound heroic, but every one of those actions helps your organization survive.
So it's like a series of battles, only the battlefield is digital. The terrain shifts constantly. And success is measured not in conquests, but in what didn't happen because you were ready.
You still need passion
You can't lead a cybersecurity program without passion. The work is hard, often thankless, and rarely visible until something goes wrong. Passion is what keeps you reviewing logs that no one else looks at. It keeps you pushing for better policies, tighter controls, and stronger training.
If you're not driven by a passion to protect and improve, the work will wear you down.
So how do you measure success?
You measure it in:
And maybe most importantly, you measure it in trust. When your board, execs, and users know you've got this, even if they don't see all the moving parts, that's a success.
The quiet wins matter most
You may not be leading a horde across Europe, but you're still defending your empire. And like Attila, you need a strategy, a strong team, and the will to keep pushing forward.
Because in cybersecurity, success isn't glory. It's readiness.
This article appeared originally on LinkedIn here.
