As I get older and gain first-hand experience in the orbit of some extremely successful people, I'm starting to realize that what I believed about how to succeed appears to be quite the opposite of what I've believed for most of my life, at least anecdotally. I've been bummed to realize how manipulative and dishonest the most successful people I've known have tended to be. I think hard work, integrity, conscientiousness, etc will get you pretty far in life, but there seems to be a certain threshold level of success that starts to favor the Machiavellian types.