I was listening to an interview with Warren Buffet this morning on Sports Radio. Despite it being a sports program he was asked the question he's probably always asked: what made you successful?
Three things that he mentioned. First, he found something that he loved from an early age. second, he had the right temperament to do what it is that he does. Third, he had great teachers along the way.
I'd sum it up this way: Passion. Gifts. Education.
Your passion is what gets you up in the morning and gives you the energy to push through, even when things are tough. We think of the word "passion" to mean a sort of ecstasy or deep seeded emotion. The word actually derives from the Latin for "suffer". In other words, what is it that makes you suffer in your soul? Is there anything that bothers you about how things are? Is there something that you can't help but do, because not doing it would cause greater pain than doing it?
Passion is what makes a man like Nelson Mandela endure years in prison because the cause of abolishing apartheid was too important to ignore. It would have been more painful for him to be free, and ignore the problem, than it was to be in prison, but continue fighting. That's passion.
Your gifts are what enable you to do something about your passion. Not everyone has the same gifts. Gifting can look like temperament, as in Buffet's case. He doesn't get rattled when people disagree with his decisions or when the stock market appears to be tanking in the short term. He has tough skin and can take the long view. Gifting can look like skills. Some people can motivate others with words; some people can motivate others with money. Some people can do; others can teach. Your gifting is going to help you fulfill your passion.
And finally, education or knowledge. You need people around you that will help shape and form who you are so that you can be the most focused in the pursuit of your passion. You also need to have the right information so that you can pursue your passion most effectively. Education can be helping you understand more about who you are; oftentimes, we think we're good at something that maybe we're not (case in point: most of the people auditioning for television Talent Shows). Learning you stink at something is a form of education. It's an important knowledge to have–almost equally important, actually, as knowing what you are good at.
We also need to know something about how the world actually is. If you want to fix the poverty problem in a little known African country, you need to know hy things are the way that they are in that African country. One of the reasons that most oversees charity is so ineffective is because we project our culture on to theirs; we project a certain way of thinking and doing things onto a group of people who have their own way of thinking and doing things. The most successful people will be the ones who have the right information about themselves, and about the problem they are trying to tackle.
Passion. Gifts. Education.
You probably won't ever become the world's wealthiest person, but that's not how success is measured. At the end of your life you'll measure success based on how closely you came to aligning yourself with your truest passion. The closer you were aligned, the more you were able to accomplish, the more successful you will be. The further you were, the less successful you will be. Everything else will be icing on the cake; even 50 billion dollars.