In order to achieve success, you will need to put in effort, but in all likelihood it will be the effort that someone else has put in before you, meaning you can copy and learn from their efforts, which makes life even easier for you!

What I'd like to do is to take that gag from above and use it to prove the point.

In December 2006, the Discovery Space Shuttle went up on a mission to the International Space Station.

On board Discovery was a Swedish astronaut, Christer Fuglesang, and it's him I want to focus on.

He is the first astronaut from Sweden.

No matter how many other people from his country go into space, he will always be the first.

Is that his definition of success?

Er, no.

As it happens, it's a nice bonus, something to look back on with pride, but to him, the success was his own personal realisation of his goal to go into space.

Due to the tragedies in the Shuttle Progamme, he had to wait 14 years to get his flight.

That's a long time, it's a lot of commitment, a big portion of his life.

So in December when he completed the mission, he could definitely call it a success.

Can you see the point I'm making?

You don't have to be the first from your country to do something in order to be a success, even though Fuglesang is.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to be a success, even though Fuglesang is.

What you do have to do though, is define your goal, be prepared to put in as much effort as required, and keep going.

That's something you can and *must* learn from our Swedish friend Christer, and then success will be yours!