“When I meet successful people I ask 100 questions as to what they attribute their success to. It is usually the same: persistence, hard work and hiring good people.”
Success means different things to different people, which is exactly the point. These quotes challenge conventional definitions and offer alternatives — because the version of success that actually makes you happy might not be the one on the magazine cover.
“To many a man, and sometimes to a youth, there comes the opportunity to choose between honorable competence and tainted wealth. The young man who starts out to be poor and honorable, holds in his hand one of the strongest elements of success.”
“When I meet successful people I ask 100 questions as to what they attribute their success to. It is usually the same: persistence, hard work and hiring good people.”
“No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.”
“Being a part of success is more important than being personally indispensable.”
“My career started young and I was really ambitious, and then I had success and I hung out with people who were much older. I think I might have been temporally misplaced, so I thought I was 40. It was a premature midlife crisis.”
“Youth is not enough. And love is not enough. And success is not enough. And, if we could achieve it, enough would not be enough.”
“Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.”
“I think the success of a talk show depends on how true it is to the personality of the person hosting it. The shows I really admire, like 'Oprah' and 'Ellen,' are distinctively like their hosts, so I think my show will be successful only if we try to stay consistent to my own sense of myself.”
“There is no success without hardship.”
“Success should always be just beyond your grasp.”
“I suppose your security is your success and your key to success is your fine palate.”
“I did not become successful in my work through embracing or engaging in celebrity culture. I never signed away my privacy in exchange for success.”
“Within the hearts men, loyalty and consideration are esteemed greater than success.”
“Success is steady progress toward one's personal goals.”
“Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.”
“The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.”