Oblique view of the San Francisco Peninsula showing areas of ancient slides and earthflows in red, steep terrain with few landslides in gray, and flat land in yellow. Science today is increasingly integrative, much less compartmentalized than it used to be. This requires flexibility and the knack for working well with other people. Science sometimes is a solitary, lonely pursuit, however, and highly gregarious people can find themselves out of place in it. But most of all, you have to be curious, want to get to the bottom of things, ask questions that ordinarily would not occur to most folks.
Science is hard work, and in some instances quite competitive.
Also important on the way up is having at least one good mentor. I had two, perhaps three.