It goes without saying that you need a lot of aptitude. You can add to that the unflagging dedication required to see you through years of studying and apprenticing. I wanted to become a plastic surgeon as a child, probably because it had a rather glamorous public image. I suppose I still had that image in my mind when I entered medical school.
Most operations are reconstructive rather than aesthetic or cosmetic.
Nowadays, I would say I am driven by a strong desire to try to put things back together and improve them when they have been damaged or destroyed by trauma, cancer or time. To enter plastic surgery training in the UK you need to qualify first as a doctor. To do this you have to gain entry to an accredited medical school. In 1984 I went to medical school - the Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School at the Charing Cross Hospital site on Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith. The school has since been renamed the Imperial College School of Medicine.