The chances are you were not born a child genius - but do not fear, this doesn’t mean you still can’t achieve great things later in life. I have a 2 step formula for success that anyone can follow, even if you have no special talents. 1) Follow Your Passion “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” - Confucius ‘Follow your passion’ is a nugget of advice used so often, but it it so true. Success in anything requires effort. You are born with a certain level of skill, but effort is still required. Although this logic seems obvious, effort requires dedication and persistence. This is when people usually give up, when it's no longer fun and becomes a chore. If you really enjoy what you’re doing, you won’t give up. Regardless of the financial reward, if something gets your blood racing, it should be incorporated into your formula for success. Following your passion, and identifying what gets you out of bed in the morning, should now be included with step 2 below. 2) Combine Your Skills Most of us have been taught: discover what you’re great at, work harder than everyone else, then enjoy the fruits of wealth and success that will follow. This is great if you have an exceptional natural talent, or blessed with a unique skill, but this is not the case for most of us. The reality is, most of us are good at a range of things, and not necessarily the best. The majority of people fall into this category, even some of the most successful people in the world. It’s very rare that someone discovers their unique world class skill, and rises to the top. Examples of this 1% could be Usain Bolt or Michael Jackson - extraordinary talents, who have also worked hard, and applied effort to become the very best. It is actually more common to find successful people, that combine a great range of skills, rather than a single talent to succeed. Richard Branson ran Student magazine from a young age. He then created his own record business, a record store, and the record label Virgin. Richard has dyslexia and didn’t achieve good results at school. He is an excellent example, of someone who has achieved huge global success, by combing a mixture of really good skills. Richard has now set up rail, airline, communications and space tourism businesses! You don’t have to be Richard Branson to adopt this approach, anyone can do it. Let’s say you’re a keen golfer with great amateur skills, but will never make it as a professional. More importantly, it's your passion, and would play everyday if you could. You could learn to create golfing tutorials, and how to convert them into online videos. Later, you could start selling advertising space on your website, and learning the basics in paid promotions. By combining a number of talents, you are producing a unique proposition, which has much more potential than your amateur golfing skills on their own. If you speak a second language, this could be incorporated next, and you start to create something that is far superior to the competition. Many people will have an individual skill or talent they try to focus on, but a combination of skills is much more valuable. You can start to create a unique offering which puts you above the rest. Conclusion - Identify things you love doing (make a list).Your passion will drive you forward and keep you committed. - Identify your existing skills (make another list!). Look for ways to combine these talents. Maybe you need to learn something new, but just enough to compliment your existing offerings PASSION, DRIVE and a unique combination of GOOD SKILLS is the magic formula. You don't need to have an exceptional talent to have great success.