Enjoyment

I'm a firm believer that if you aren't doing work that you enjoy, you should change things. When you like what you do, you'll implicitly be successful at marketing, even if your job title is not 'marketer'. If you are doing marketing stuff for the money, not because you really want to do it, you most likely won't be making much of a (positive) contribution to your business or community.

Generally, you will succeed if you enjoy it and are good at it. (Of course you can enjoy stuff you aren't too good at -- but it is probably best to keep these activities as hobbies, and maybe even more severely, private hobbies.) You can be good at stuff you don't enjoy. Surely, however, you can adapt your talents to activities which give you greater satisfaction.

Why is this so important for marketing success? Put yourself in the place of your clients. Who would you rather do business with: Someone grumpily doing their work just for the money, or someone who is enthusiastic -- and talented -- about their vocation. If you are really lucky, you are part of a business where most or ideally all of the employees are in the right place, in the right jobs, all working in harmony.

In the end, real marketing success combines the mechanics, techniques, and best business practices of the marketing profession, with the enthusiasm, spirit and skills and values of the business for which the marketer is employed.

So, if you are marketing, and hate the work, quit.