18 People Whose Extraordinary Work Ethic Got Them To The Top

By Max Nisen

It's easy to look at successful people and explain their achievements as the product of luck - being in the right place at the right time or being born with extraordinary talent. But there are many people who get lucky in one or both of those ways that don't go anywhere.What distinguishes the merely talented from the truly great is drive - the willingness to get in earlier, stay later, and do more than everyone around them.

Whether it's staying up until 2 a.m. while working another job like Mark Cuban did to learn software or personally following up on customer complaints like Jeff Bezos does, many of the most successful people worked incredibly hard on their way up and continue to do so today.

If you find yourself about to hit the snooze button again or dragging in the middle of your workday, look here for some inspiration.