For me, I think the traits that drive my success, in order, are curiosity, tenacity and intelligence. People always tell me I'm smart, and I know for sure my in

For me, I think the traits that drive my success, in order, are curiosity, tenacity and intelligence. People always tell me I'm smart, and I know for sure my intelligence is above average, but I meet so many people who are far smarter than me. On the curiosity scale though, as a man in my mid-30s, I still annoy the hell out of everyone around me with curious questions about everything. I have to moderate myself to keep from asking as many questions as a curious 6 year old. And I'd attribute a significant of my success in my programming career to my refusal to give up when I have to spend days troubleshooting, figuring our how to make undocumented code work, or nag people to get the access I need to certain systems. My biggest generic life advice for people is "Cultivate curiosity". The first thing I ask about when people want to know if they should get into programming is how tenacious they are.