How do you define (seedy) success?

I know people—three local friends spring to mind immediately—who've had dozens of Echium wildpretii seedlings spring up in the wake of their bloomed-out plants. In fact this plant of mine (below), which bloomed last spring, came from one of those people. His plant bloomed, he had more seedlings than he wanted, and I was happy to adopt and rehome a few.

Once that tower of blooms formed seeds I carefully cut it down and separated the seeds from the painfully spiky chaff (hmmm, does that word apply when you're not talking about grain?), anyway, hopefully you know what I mean. I then sprinkled seeds around the garden in spots I thought they'd be happy and grow. I gave seeds to a couple neighbors who were captivated by the bloom. Finally I planted seeds in one of my seed trays. Surely I too could be successful making echium babies? Well, how exactly do you define success? Cause look! I've got a little itty-bitty echium baby!
Weather Diary, April 11: Hi 60, Low 32/ Precip 0