What “challenges” did you have to personally overcome in order to really succeed?

I know it sounds cliché, but I believe most entrepreneurs and more specifically, successful translators would say that "real success" is never achieved, rather a process over your entire career.  I get the opportunity to speak with humanities students at the local university a few times a year about what they can do with their degrees after graduation.  I often say that "becoming a good translator is like an apprenticeship — it takes a long time and you are never done".  Although not exhaustive, allow me to list just a few of the things that come to mind that distinguish good translators from great translators (good to great, as they say).

1. Be willing to learn: My experience (both personally and from what I have observed) is that many translators going into the business think they know exactly what it takes to be great.  Unfortunately, that is rarely the case.  Great translators are constantly learning and improving, from learning difficult structures to learning from others.
2. Learn from a mentor: Speaking of learning from others, learning from a mentor is invaluable.  Not only can you speed up the time it takes to start making a real income from translation, you cannot put a value on the insights you can gain from someone who's been through it already.
3. Ask for feedback from everyone: It can be "scary" to ask for feedback because you may not always want to hear what they have to say.  But most people are happy to offer feedback, and are honest and kind when doing so.  They understand you are only trying to improve and only then can you really go from good to great.
4. Face the music: Along the same lines as asking for feedback, sometimes we make mistakes (it happens to the best of us).  When that happens, be willing to "face the music", i.e., accept that you blew it, make good ("wiedergutmachen" as they say in German) and learn from your mistakes.
5. Be a great writer: What is a great translator other than being a great writer in their target language?  This cannot be stressed enough.  Know and use the correct structures, punctuation, terminology, etc.

I would enjoy hearing what you think it takes to succeed.  Send me your comments.