[mcrowder]

Unfortunately, I think there is a significant difference in reality between a GOOD umpire or official (for other sports) and a SUCCESSFUL one.

Hard work and dedication will make any official a better official, and to my mind is the primary requirement in making a GOOD official; but a secondary one for a successful one (although the successfulness eventually tops out for someone who doesn't put in the work).

Networking - important to the successful one. Not as important to the good one, although a talented official that doesn't network well will often be passed over for the more important games - and sometimes the only way for a GOOD official to get better is to work more important games.

Kiss up - if you change this to "work well with coaches", I believe it is equally important to both. An official that works well with coaches will both help his successfulness AND improve his talent, in that he will not have to deal with as much nonsense as the official who does not handle coaches well.

Willingness to travel is a bigger factor for the successful official, although as in number 2 above, a talented official that can't travel will often miss out on working with other talented officials, thus harm his learning curve in the long run.