What do you need to be a successful designer?

Creativity, imagination, and skill.
If the designer is creative and can imagine the final product then use his skills to bring design to life he or she will definitely succeed and stand out.

Originality, passion, creativity, patience,surround your self with creative people, find new ideas, collaborate, compete with international designers, find your limits, know your limits and get out of your limits. update your self in terms of softwares design skills and technicalities...

Imagine the finished project, walk through it before you see it realized

Before you can call yourself a graphic designer, you have to make some decisions.
For example, are you interested in advertising, web development, multimedia , print design, or animation, Narrow your focus on an area that appeals to you.
1.
Communicate, Relate, Share 2.
Expand, Improvise, Adapt 3.
Evolve, Learn, Update 4.
Read, Read, Read 5.
Experiment, Experience, Understand 6.
Seek, Inspire, Create 7.
Aim, Score, Win

Require imagination and skill in creating the idea and then skill in the use of tools and harnessed to serve as a designer Then know that you are on your way to excellence

Use your imagination ..Be an artist ..
See all that is new

When all designers have the required technical skills, what makes you stand from the crowd is your creativity.

Open mind.