The first requisite for success is to develop the ability to focus and apply your mental and physical energies toward solving the problems at hand - without growing weary. Because such thinking can often be difficult, there seems to be no limit to which most people will go to avoid the effort and labor that is associated with it...
When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.