Software Engineers: What factors contributed to your success?

Hi HN, I am in the process of writing a book and on a smaller scale a small blog post exploring the factors that contribute to a software engineer's success. I'd love to understand more about

* What factors contribute to your success (coding, design, communication, finding your purpose, etc.)

* What factors were hard for you to master or understand

* What areas you're working on now

I've constructed a survey here

https://airtable.com/shry2byax5iisFzwq

and am offering an incentive of 10 USD as an Amazon gift card to anyone who does fill it out, up to the first 80 people. I'm polling my friends and colleagues but I'd love more diverse inputs. I appreciate your responses, the survey may look long but many of the questions are asking for a rating on a scale of 1-5.

You are welcome to leave your free form comments on these topics below as well. I'll do my best to normalize those inputs, though the survey is preferred.

Thanks in advance, Ameer