What makes a person successful?

In the book I am reading Through My Eyes by Tim Tedow, the reason why I think he is so successful is that he works hard and he is competitive. Not to mention he is a very gifted athlete, naturally strong, and fast. He always wants to do better than the other guy, striving to be the best at whatever it happened to be, whether it was football, baseball, or seeing how could spit the watermelon seed the farthest. He did whatever it took to be the best, he would stay up to 12:30 in the morning and do push-ups Just to think to himself "I bet I'm am the only one working out right now".

Also he is just one of  though's people who just wants to work hard. When he was young before he played T-ball he wanted to lift weights because that what he thought everyone else was doing. Also when he was in 6th grade trying out for the football team at a local school, everyone got in a line to see who could do the most bicep curls. He got a the back of the line by the time it was his turn he had to do 65 curls to win. Guess what he did, he went to 100 then 200, by 225 he couldn't feel his arms but he kept going he finally stopped at 315 reps. He did all of that just to prove a point to the coaches, that he would do what ever it takes to help the team.