[Superfluous Man]

Who cares what 1 or 100 or 1 million tournaments prove? I get excited about the prospect of a 7-figure score. I get excited about sitting at a table with 2-3 guaranteed soft spots instead of having to wait and bum-hunt online cash games and grind against the regs. I want to make money playing poker. Period. Sure, having the respect of my poker-playing peers would be nice, and maybe parlaying a big tournament score into sponsorships/"fame" would be interesting. But first and foremost, show me the money. In fact, the prospect of making this big score is such a powerful motivator that I am flying out to Vegas to play these, despite the fact that I have never cashed in a live event with a buyin greater than 5k and am probably stuck near 6-figures in live tournaments lifetime.

Honestly, the question behind this should be "would you rather run super hot and be thought of as a clown (vietcong01) or run cold/average and be thought of as a good player (any number of mttc regs)?"

Anyway, to answer your question before I ramble out of control, there's probably some happy middle between the two polar personalities you describe. Someone who is generally apathetic will eventually stop caring whether he plays well. He thinks, "why should I care about maximizing my EV here?" He cannot motivate himself to do well, because he doesn't even care about his results. Someone who is "insanely driven to be the best" will be unable to detach himself from his results. Every beat is a personal blow from the variance gods. Every mistake, no matter how small, is devastating for him; after all, how can he be anywhere near the best if he makes an incorrect play? "THE BEST PLAYERS NEVER MAKE MISTAKES," he screams to himself. A bad run crushes this player's soul, possibly before he ever even runs good enough to get a shot at that big score.

I'm player number two, I fear. But I'm trying to change that.

Anyway, neither personality is well-suited to tournament poker. Or really, poker in general. You have to be apathetic enough to ignore the variance in the short run, even if the short run feels like a marathon. You have to be apathetic enough to shake off your mistakes and not let them compound themselves with tilt, but driven enough to recognize and correct said mistakes. You also have to be driven enough to care about winning. You have to stay motivated and play well and have confidence in yourself, no matter the slings and arrows variance hits you with.

Hope this helps answer the question?