The secret of success
I don't have the slightest clue
For some it's inherited, good wage job, oil production, dumb luck and some I just can't figure out.
I had one similar to cp, I bought a place no one else wanted because it was a rough and sandy, 4x4 in and out place, but I moved the road so you could get in and out in 2wd.
I kept it a few years and sold it.
Bought another place that had the irrigation rights sold, so nobody wanted it because they thought it didn't have any water, but the truth was you had house, livestock and etc water, you just couldn't irrigate.
I had them get a lawyer to draw it up legal, so I bought it and then sold it.
Bought an old house and lived in it and fixed it up and then sold it.
Bought sale barn calves, few at a time and was doing good until a few wasn't enough(see below)
Day traded stocks before the bust.( then lost it all and then some)
That was the good, now the bad
Bought another house and owner financed it to a young couple and they divorced and tore the house up, cost me about 15-20k
Bought another place I thought was too cheap but it wasn't, carrying cost killed me
Bought a load of calves out of Florida and lost my shirt
Bought a group sale barn cows that aborted most of the calves(bvd?), lost my shirt
Wall street taught me to buy livestock and not trade stocks
Drought has wrecked me more than I care to remember
To sum it all up I'd say from what I have seen over the years and I think it's like a sprinter, you're born with or without and nothing you can do to aquire it.
1 Mental capacity is the key IMO
2 Personality will get you long ways in life or it can get you in over your head if you don't have #1
3 Work ethic
4 Good wage, most times that requires #1
5 Luck, some people everything they touch turns to gold(can't explain it )
6 Know the difference between risk and gambling