I think different scientists would give you different answers about what it takes to be a scientist, so this is just my answer.

I liked school and learned easily. I also liked being outdoors in the woods and the fields. My grandparents taught me the names of plants and trees. When I was in high school, I liked biology class. The next year, I took chemistry, and my chemistry teacher told me I should be a Biochemist, because that was an exciting new field. Now, biochemistry is an old field! But I decided to become a biochemist. I ended up doing all sorts of science related to biology - biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, biophysics, materials science, and nano-science. Here's one of the pages in my website:

my website

Some scientists do poorly in school. I think Albert Einstein is one of those scientists.

Now, biology is so much more difficult than it was when I was in school. I don't know what I would think if I took biology as a high school student today!

Here's something I wrote about being a scientist for an internet series called ScienceLives:

ScienceLives

Now I am retired, and I love being a retired scientist. I love reading Science magazine and looking for articles that might give me new clues to my ideas about the origins of life.