Just finished reading the text of an interview on news.com featuring Charles Ferguson, a former software developer who sold Frontpage to Microsoft for $133 million dollars some years ago. While it has inspired me as far as making me "wish" that I had the means to start-up the independent film company I’ve been wanting to start for a number of years now, the piece has also raised some doubts in my mind that I have what it takes to make a success of my life.

This is not a good thing obviously. You never want to doubt your own ability; but as I read the Charles Ferguson CNET interview, it started to dawn on me that one truly does need to be much smarter than everyone else, or much more talented than everyone else to reach a height of success that’s measurable in millions. It is true that, as George Allen puts it, "people of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit;" but for the most part, average people don’t usually become huge successes. Successful people are in some way above average, whether it’s in their looks, their intelligence, or their talent. They get paid top dollar because they have that "it" factor.

As to those of us without the ‘it’ factor, sheer will and determination are our only hope for getting to the top; but one necessarily needs to have an established goal to set out determinedly after. To make money, to become financially secure is only a desire if there isn’t a specific plan of action behind it that answers the question of "how are you going to make your money?" And you should expect to have to work a thousand times as hard as the people who have ‘it’.