How does someone Become a Good Computer Hacker?

So I ask this question, "how does someone beome a computer hacker?", this question interested me because while at the local Library the other day reding a magazine on 'Time', I came across an interview with computer hacker Kevin Mitnick who began hacking computers when he was in high school! So how does someone just hack into computers, that is what bothers me! I mean how can someone be so good at hacking into computers? The only reason why I'm asking this question is because I myself want to become a hacker! So many questions are coming to my mind as to how a hacker becomes a 'hacker'....

“A Colombian drug dealer offered me $5 million to hack into the Bureau of Prisons network to get him an early release date. I said, ‘Let’s talk.’”


Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/08/20/quote-hacker-kevin-mitnick-on-serving-jail-time/#ixzz1fvkRSO7t

Hackers get into trouble (who doesn't) but they also get good money for it. I also read an article about "Wikileaks" founder Julian Assange and how he became a hacker, well he's mother gave him a computer as a kid and he made very good use of it, he obviously spent alot of time on the Pc that enabled him to, well hack into files and stuff...but the question is how does one become a hacker, a there books to be read, formulae to be crammed, or what else?