I never read these 'how to be successful' articles or studies, whenever i do i always have the same story pop into my head and they always line up with it to a large extent;

Imagine some people on some open landscape, blindfolded and all following the same rules; Pick a direction, step forward, if higher stay and repeat, if lower step back and try again. After a time most people will be stuck on small hills, a very select few will be on mountains.

Ask the people on mountains, how they did it? They give us this inspirational speech which consisted of some variation of "I Picked a direction, stepped forward, if higher I'd stay and repeat, if lower I'd step back and try again" And all the people around hearing this seem motivated to move that much faster, on and off their little mounds.