Success. What is it? One perspective.

Success; What is it? [Dons Guru-helmet]

Success is measured by each molecule of time spent in the conscious process of self realization.

That's the short answer.

If you use performance to realise yourself then either blatently or subtexturally you must celebrate some primary truth about your journey in doing so. 

Most if not all truths are shared in the soup we call the human experience. 

The human experience is bigger than any one artist can contemplate let alone reflect so to be successful it is probably best to specialise.

Laughter is both a personal and shared truth that actually celebrates futility rather than being overwhelmed by it. Most people just think it's a reaction to funny stuff but at it's core it celebrates the profound comedy of our attempts to master the human condition. Be it wit or slapstick or Rob Torris capturing his audiences applause in a small box, laughter is a reaction to a conceit that we presume mastery over circumstance. We don't and laughter is the acknowledgment of this on an instinctive level.

Success can also be measured as being at peace with the decisions you make from the choices you give yourself.

Money is liquid choice. The choices you make with it are more reflective of you than any amount in itself. Both money and others opinions of yourself can be the after-effects of success as I've defined it.
If you try to define success exclusively by these terms you will invariably end up hating yourself. 
Others opinions of you are secondary at best. 

Your opinion of yourself is the yardstick by which you measure success and while I have my guru-helmet on I may as well chuck out some heavy artillery. Just as the words that you use in the thoughts in your head are the cradle of your emotions, so too are the concepts that you use in your show the cradle of your audiences experience. You provide the right cradle and the experience is the baby and a baby is a composite creature. [When two people love each other very much they have a special hug]

For various reasons you may hate yourself already and simply project your cynicism in pursuit of money and others opinions much like a shovel used to dig a deeper grave for yourself in your own wastelands. Welcome to the excessively distractive core of western society.

As with most things the real nutrition is out on the peripheries where holy clowns like Rumple gibber. I use holy in a spiritual rather than religious sense obviously. Rumple is holy because in an idiotic world the devoted idiot is king. Rumple wants for nothing because Rumple simply makes one choice at a time. He's not a fucking deity rather he's been in the moment most of his life.
I wonder how liberating that must be, as well as exhausting but here's another truth.

Life is unilaterally exhausting for everyone, being fulfilled and exhausted is the ideal. That's why people with disposable incomes do physical things they don't have to, climb or swim or whatever. Exhaust yourself in the exploration of the most kick-ass show you are capable of conceiving is my advice.

As a performer success is the ability to share your experience via the amplification provided by the tools you have honed at your disposal to your own satisfaction.

Now stop asking me profound questions. If you inquire of me about love I may just have to hunt you down and kill you. 

[Takes off Guru-helmet,]