Throughout his career, former President Barack Obama has had the chance to meet — and work with — some of the world's most successful people, from tech billionaires to Nobel Prize laureates.

Sitting down with LinkedIn editor-in-chief Dan Roth for the platform's "This is Working" podcast, Obama explained that the "most successful" people are the ones who are really interested in, and excited about, the work that they're doing, citing Bill Gates and his fascination with computers as an example.

It's more important to reflect on "what you want to do rather than what you want to be," he said. "I think so often, people have in their mind 'I want to be a congressman by 30. I wanna make X amount of money by this age.'" 

But if you are passionate about your job, and have a genuine interest in the work that you do, you'll set yourself up to have "an extraordinary career," Obama said.

When you are "absorbed by what you're doing," he added, "one of two things is gonna happen: You're gonna get really good at it, and whether you're rewarded or, recognized, you get the positions that you want or not, the journey will have been a good one."

This isn't the first time the former president has shared tips for succeeding at work.

One of the hardest but most important things you must do in order to achieve your career goals, he told high school students in a September 2009 speech, is getting comfortable with failure. 

The most successful people in the world, he said, are also the ones "who've had the most failures," including Michael Jordan, who was cut from his high school basketball team, years before he would become one of the greatest professional basketball players of all time. 

"You can't let your failures define you — you have to let your failures teach you," he said. "You have to let them show you what to do differently the next time. No one's born being good at all things … you become good at things through hard work." 

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