Whenever you see someone who has achieved a measure of success, you try to figure out what made them successful. So you identify all the things they had going for them. But those reasons really don’t explain it because others who weren’t successful have had those same conditions.

Others had talent Others had potential

Others had support Others had opportunity Others had luck

Others had favoritism.

So if others had the same conditions, why weren’t they successful too? These traits, in any combination, are insufficient to explain success because none of them are enough without the ONE success trait: want-to. Even with all those conditions, without want-to, success will only be a should-have-been.

Want-to creates refined focus, generates unending energy and sustains unexplainable persistence. It overcomes discouragement. It overcomes the odds. It’s the one thing that overcomes everything. If you don’t believe it, watch college football on any Saturday afternoon. Teams that shouldn’t win do so because their want-to is greater. Remember—it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.

It’s the fire in your belly that you have to stoke continually. Everyone who has attained professional stature has had to gut it out by reaching deep inside. Like any unquenchable fire, you have to feed it. Your motivational drivers of competitiveness, desire for status, to be the best, or to contribute to a greater good—all are yours to feed.

The problem you have to solve is how to weave your want-to into your professional career—what you do and for whom you do it. Figure that out and you will be successful. Otherwise, you’ll find that the grind will wear you down and you’ll be left with a job. You are better than that and you deserve better.