Yeah well, in my mind you can't really "fail" at fandom (which is what it makes it so nice), so there's no "success" either. I mean, sure there's popularity and prolificness and all that, but for example I don't write fic, and it's not as if fandom wouldn't work for me. In the end for me fandom is the ultimate low pressure thing in that really the only thing you have to do to get fun stuff out of it is to show up, and anything else is optional and you can do it or not or do it for a while and stop at any time etc.