I get that. I think the definition of success obviously varies a lot as well, but if we talk about the upper echelon of anything, eventually everyone is putting in the time and effort, but there are people who are still above and beyond everyone else in that upper echelon. So the question becomes, whats the difference?
> So the question becomes, what's the difference?
It's mostly luck most of the time, and that includes the amount of motivation you have to go beyond in that venture.
This is mostly my opinion, but the evidence I've seen over the years lead me to conclude this too.
How motivated you are at one thing, and how exclusively focused your motivation is, from what I've read, is mostly luck. But beyond that, there's a lot of factor purely driven by luck, your genetics, your environment, the time and place of your efforts, etc.
Let's say that "putting in time and effort" is the key to success, aka, "hard work" is the key to success. Alright, now what if you're finding it hard to "put in the time and effort"?
I would say if you find it hard to put in the time and effort, you need to either find ways to make it easier, or find something else which you find easier to put in time and effort into.
I'm not sure if my point will land, but see, for me, the real trick to success is to find something that is easy for you to put in time and effort into. And I think a lot of successes are attributable to that, yes successful people did put in time and effort, but it was easier for them to do so, and that's why they are successful at it.