...what should I be focusing my efforts on in order to increase my chances of success?
"Success" is in the eye of the beholder. To some, they don't consider themselves successful unless they tag trophy bucks every year. To another, it may be a doe or two in the freezer. And to others, "success" may be just being out and observing and learning about God's creation. Success is personal. Only you can define it.
And "success" is not static. Your definition of success will most likely change as you evolve as a hunter.
There's a concept I've seen published many times about the natural stages that a hunter morphs through over the years. Here's just one of those articles
https://firearmusernetwork.com/2008/10/29/five-stages-of-hunters/
Personally, for me success means challenging myself and then overcoming those challenges. Sometimes I overcome, but more often (
way more often) the deer win. I like it that way.
My 1st advice for you is to establish some
realistic goals and as you succeed, adjust goals upward as you attain previous goals. There's no way to measure success unless you start out with a goal. And setting goals too high is a recipe for frustration and failure. Stay realistic. I'd love to kill a 170" buck, but they don't exist around here. It's not very realistic to have that as a goal where I live.
As for hunting tips...
As others have said, understanding wind and odor is probably the main cornerstone of whitetail hunting. Really understanding (not just observing) wind patterns is probably the most challenging and difficult of all aspects of whitetail hunting. It's much, much more complicated than "hunt the wind".
Actually understanding how wind behaves over terrain is yet another challenge to overcome and it's another goal of mine. I can't say that the wind never confuses me anymore, but it confuses me a lot less that it did for my 1st 45 years of hunting deer. The last few years have been very enjoyable (aka successful) for me in that department.
BTW, using floaters as wind detectors to the best way to learn wind patterns. And floaters are free. They don't cost you a dime.
Understanding wind and controlling odor is really just a part of the #1 challenge to not educate deer that we are hunting them. It seems obvious, but keeping deer "naive" is huge. Having deer smell us (and remember, they can smell where we've been for days or weeks) is probably the biggest culprit in educating deer that they're being hunted. And it isn't just the airborne odor that is the problem. Ground odor, and odor left along our paths is really the main problem.
So, don't touch anything that you don't have to. It drives me nuts to watch hunters either on TV or out in the woods, touch rubs, scrape branches, or push stuff aside as they walk.
Everything we touch leaves oily fingerprints which equals odor that educates deer. Even our clothes brushing against foliage leaves odor behind.
Carry pruners and use them religiously. Don't bulldoze your way through the woods, clip your way through the woods...especially when you get near stands.
Here's wishing you "success".
Stay realistic, stay ethical, and compete only against yourself. Don't get trapped in the race to keep up with someone else.
Good luck to you!