Funny thing about success: It never quite looks the way it’s supposed to. From childhood, we’re taught to seek it, work toward it, and achieve it at all costs. We expect it to arrive wrapped in corner offices, tailored suits, and Champagne towers tumbling in slow motion. But what became clear as we put together our third annual Success Issue is that, for those featured in these pages, it’s less a destination than a kind of sovereignty—the freedom to ignore convention, to take the…

