Reiner Knizia

For those who haven't heard of him, he is like the badass godfather of german aka designer boardgames.

Anyhow, while he worked at a bank for seven years on developing math models for making money, he awoke at 5am and designed games for several hours each day. He made games, was rejected, went to work at the bank, then woke up the next day and did the same thing over again.

Eventually he made a game that sold and since then has become known as one of the most prolific game designers ever. Of the top 100 games - board and computer ranked all time, he has 16. That's like a filmmaker with 16 films in the top 100 of all time. Unheard of.

Anyhow, I love the spirit behind this guy. It seems like this is what it takes to become the best at what you do. It's hard to summon that dedication.