incredibly successful people share their surprising definitions of success

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban reads three hours a day
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When we talk about a "successful" person, we're typically talking about someone who's got billions in their bank account, someone who's authored multiple bestsellers, or maybe someone who's in charge of an entire nation.

But if you ask people who fit the conventional definition of a successful individual, many will tell you that those achievements aren't what make them feel accomplished.

Below, Business Insider has rounded up what some of the world's most powerful and impressive people — from President Barack Obama to the late author Maya Angelou — have to say about success.

Billionaire Richard Branson believes success is about happiness.
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Though Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, is worth some $5 billion, the Virgin founder equates success with personal fulfillment.

"Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people that they associate with," he wrote on LinkedIn. "In my opinion, true success should be measured by how -hapy you are."

Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington says that money and power aren't enough.
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Huffington says that while we tend to think of success along two metrics — money and power — we need to add a third.

"To live the lives we truly want and deserve, and not just the lives we settle for, we need a Third Metric," she told Forbes' Dan Schawbel, "a third measure of success that goes beyond the two metrics of money and power, and consists of four pillars: well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving."

Together, those factors help you to take care of your psychological life and truly be successful, or as the title of her 2014 book, "Thrive," suggests.