Success?

What does it take to succeed in life? What does it even mean to succeed in life? Well, I see a few different kinds of success: there's the best-in-show kind of success enjoyed by professional athletes/musicians/actors/etc. - people who really excel at something or are just lucky; there's the all-around respected, materially well-off, doctor-lawyer kind of success, which seems to mainly require enough focus and drive (and perhaps ability) to pass through enough societal hoops (med/law school, residency, etc.); there's the Bill Clinton rags-to-leader-of-the-free-world kind of success, which I believe requires some level of genius at reading/manipulating people (Saddam did not remain a dictator for decades merely by being a brute); there's the sort of master-of-your-craft kind of success that everyday people can achieve (we all have that teacher we'll never forget, etc.); then there's the sort of handed-to-you-on-a-silver-platter kind of success of, say, George W. Bush (not that I'm out to bash the president here, but he is a convenient target) - undeniably the man is successful by all American Standards - he's rich, well-connected, and, well, in his second term as president - but aside from his family, it's hard to see why (it's easy to imagine the likes of John F. Kennedy doing well had he not been a Kennedy, but put George Bush in a different family and all I see is a Middle Manager); also, of course, there's the sort of rogue success achieved by such icons as Sergei Brin and Larry Page (the Google guys), whose grad school project unpredictably turned into a multi-million dollar company with the stated mission of organizing the world's information.

I like to think that there is a reasonably logical explanation for most things, but I can't seem to put a finger on the success of people such as Tom Cruise. Yes, he's good-looking and charismatic on-screen, but he's not the most gifted actor in the world (any oscars?), he's short, and he's just plain bizarre in real life. How is he one of the most top-grossing movie actors of all time? Did he just get a lucky break or is he secretly some calculating genius who carefully chose his early roles to facilitate his brilliantly master-minded rise to the top?

It's that difficulty to define success or pin down the reasons for it that make it so elusive. I've always wanted to succeed (who doesn't?), and aside from the doctor-lawyer variety which I've known from pretty early on wasn't for me, I've never really known what it means or how one goes about it. I don't excel at any sport or musical/cinematic endeavor, I'm not terribly great at reading or manipulating people, I've yet to actually choose a craft (arguably, as I have a day job, though my heart's not in it), and my family will never hand me anything. I guess I will just have to get lucky.