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 detour, or to even celebrate the ordinary with gusto. In their telling, success lives in joy, in transformation, in the courage to step outside prescribed lanes, and sometimes simply in the work itself. It’s far more interesting—and, it should be said, intangible—than the clichés ever allow.

Which brings us, fittingly, to Lenny Kravitz. In her profile, Jazmine Hughes finds the rocker in Topanga Canyon, fresh from his Las Vegas residency. He recalls the SoHo loft he once lined with scavenged mirrors, a sanctuary built on instinct rather than on means. The same impulse to make has carried him through the years—to Grammy-winning songs, into his own design studio, and to the fruit trees he tends
on his Bahamian property. Success, he tells Hughes, isn’t about possessions or trophies but about the act of creating—whether it’s a song, a space, or (judging by a six-pack that would knock Father Time on his back) a body kept in fighting form. One thing is certain: At 61, slowing down is nowhere on the set list. 

Mastery, in some cases, can come with a knowing wink, as staff writer Tori Latham discovers. Aldo Sohm spends his days curating rare vintages for Eric Ripert at New York City’s acclaimed Le Bernardin, yet on a Caribbean beach he happily stumbled upon the charms of Whispering Angel, a $20 rosé. The admission might unsettle a more self-serious sommelier, but Sohm’s gift is that he never confuses expertise with pretense. Robb Report’s lifestyle director, Justin Fenner, meanwhile, catches up with Dr. Barbara Sturm, who reigns over a multimillion-dollar skincare empire built on regenerative medicine from her chalet in Gstaad. Despite the alpine trappings and celebrity devotees, she waves it off with a shrug: Life, she says, is “a journey that can be adjusted.”

Success can also look a lot like reinvention. Digital editor Nicole Hoey captures Yankees legend Bernie Williams in a second act every bit as ambitious as his first. After four World Series rings, he returned to school at age 45 to pursue his other love, jazz guitar—trading the roar of the Bronx for the quiet rigor of the conservatory and performances on world-class stages. Ben Oliver, for his part, follows Lynn Calder, who stepped out of petrochemicals and into the driver’s seat at Ineos Automotive, charged with turning billionaire Jim Ratcliffe’s pub-born notion into a marque positioned to spar with Land Rover.

And then there’s Stephen Carter. Staff writer Abigail Montanez spotlights the production designer who gave Succession its now-canonical look of stealth wealth: penthouses hushed to the point of menace, boardrooms gleaming with the chill of power, even dinner tables set with illicit songbirds sculpted from marzipan. Yet off set, he’s more likely to be found at a punk show in Brooklyn than at a gallery opening in Chelsea.

The stories here remind us that success laughs in the face of easy definition. It can be playful or exacting, public or private, rooted in discipline or sparked by a sketch on a napkin over a pint at the corner bar. What it rarely is, however, is predictable—and maybe that’s what makes it worth chasing in the first place.

Enjoy the issue.

Top: Artist Peter Uka’s portrait Lenny, Familiar Corner (2025) in his studio in Cologne, Germany.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced Sunday Israel has received the remains of three Israeli hostages from Hamas through the Red Cross and confirmed they were recovered by IDF and Shin Bet forces inside the Gaza Strip, according to a statement.

The announcement said the bodies would be transferred to Israel, where they will be honored in a military ceremony led by the Chief Military Rabbi.

Afterward, the bodies will be taken to the National Center of Forensic Medicine of the Ministry of Health for identification. Once the process is completed, official notifications will be delivered to the families, the statement said.

All families of the deceased hostages have been informed, and the government expressed deep condolences with the statement saying its “hearts are with them at this difficult time.”

The official statement also reaffirmed Israel’s ongoing commitment to bringing all hostages home and declared that efforts will continue “relentlessly and will not cease until the last hostage is brought home.”

The Israeli public was also urged to respect the families’ privacy and avoid spreading unverified information, with updates provided only from official sources.

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China has frequently accused the Philippines of acting as a ‘troublemaker’ and ‘saboteur of regional stability’.

The Philippines and Canada have signed a defence pact to expand joint military drills and deepen security cooperation in a move widely seen as a response to China’s growing assertiveness in the region, most notably in the disputed South China Sea.

Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr and Canadian Defence Minister David McGuinty inked the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement (SOVFA) on Sunday after a closed-door meeting in Manila.

McGuinty said the deal would strengthen joint training, information sharing, and coordination during humanitarian crises and natural disasters.

Teodoro described the pact as vital for upholding what he called a rules-based international order in the Asia-Pacific, where he accused China of expansionism. “Who is hegemonic? Who wants to expand their territory in the world? China,” he told reporters.

The agreement provides the legal framework for Canadian troops to take part in military exercises in the Philippines and vice versa. It mirrors similar accords Manila has signed with the United States, Australia, Japan and New Zealand.

China has not yet commented on the deal, but it has frequently accused the Philippines of being a “troublemaker” and “saboteur of regional stability” after joint patrols and military exercises with its Western allies in the South China Sea.

Beijing claims almost the entire waterway, a vital global shipping lane, thereby ignoring a 2016 international tribunal ruling that dismissed its territorial claims as unlawful. Chinese coastguard vessels have repeatedly used water cannon and blocking tactics against Philippine ships, leading to collisions and injuries.

Teodoro used a regional defence ministers meeting in Malaysia over the weekend to condemn China’s declaration of a “nature reserve” around the contested Scarborough Shoal, which Manila also claims.

“This, to us, is a veiled attempt to wield military might and the threat of force, undermining the rights of smaller countries and their citizens who rely on the bounty of these waters,” he said.

Talks are under way by the Philippines for similar defence agreements with France, Singapore, Britain, Germany and India as Manila continues to fortify its defence partnerships amid rising tensions with Beijing.