What are some characteristics of successful people?

During my internship at Barclays Capital I was assigned to a team of 3 that took positions as big as the rest of the trading floor combined. It was the heavy weight dream team of 3 ex Goldman bankers. And me!

The team's head was Marc Cheval (might be spelled wrong - I've not been able to find him on Google despite trying all spelling variations - it's like he's disappeared - I've wanted to meet him again just to say thanks for his positive influence).

Anyway, Marc was once giving me a lift on his way back home in his flashy sports car, and said, "Look, Asim, a lot of people say they will learn French, or lose weight, or they will read some book."

"The difference between most other people and me is that I don't do them tomorrow, I actually do them. Today."

He explained, "I'm tired right now, but I don't care. I'm going to drop you off, get home, and I will read at least a couple of chapters of [some finance book I can't recall]. I don't care how f***ing tired I am. I am going to get through a couple of chapters. Because I don't do things tomorrow. I do them today."