How does one *really* become sucessful?

I have a question; How does one REALLY become a great success?

I've read all the books, heard the tapes and have done reasonably well in my life so far. I'm not poor, I'm not "rich", I'm somewhere in the middle. I've followed the paths these guys (and girls) laid out, and somehow that windfall of great success still eludes me.

One thing I've noticed however, is that most of these people already had some significant success before they even started that path to greatness.

Tony Robbins, Dave Ramsey, Brian Tracy, Zig, and the list goes on. If you listen to Tony Robbin's program - which I HIGHLY recommend, you'll hear about his suffering in his 400 square foot apartment doing dishes in the bathtub. Dave Ramsey talks about losing it all, and having his realization while gassing up his Jag.

What these guys dismiss in the first few pages is the successes they've had before they even began the journey. Tony Robbins talks about how they called him "wonder boy", and that he was making $10,000 a month - and lost it all. Ramsey is the same way, he already was a millionaire. Both of these guys, and the others to a certain extent, had already tasted success by most peoples standards.

Their personal journeys, the phenomenal success in life must have been built on habits that didn't exist in their world. What was life like for them at 10?. What was their day to day?

What was it deep down that made them do what they did to even get to the point that they had these phenomenal failures to build from?

I think what may be lacking, unless I'm not reading between the lines right, is the spark that they had to get to success number one. Any ideas??