I feel like a hostage to fortune. Not that I am complaining. I wanted to play the role. But in truth I didn't think the show would be such a success. OK I thought it would fail. Not because it was bad. I was confident it was good but plenty of good things just sort of wither on the vine.
Because after my first year I had a lot of success took everybody by storm came back the next year thought it was easy and didn't have near the season I had the previous year. It was kind of a wake-up call. And so life goes on.
A tragic irony of life is that we so often achieve success or financial independence after the chief reason for which we sought it has passed away.
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.
My father was an immigrant who literally walked across Europe to get out of Russia. He fought in World War I. He was wounded in action. My father was a great success even though he never had money. He was a very determined man a great role model.
They thought I was a success as soon as I started paying the bills.
While I was doing stand-up I thought I knew for sure that success meant getting everyone to like me. So I became whoever I thought people wanted me to be. I'd say yes when I wanted to say no and I even wore a few dresses.
The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well and doing well whatever you do without thought of fame. If it comes at all it will come because it is deserved not because it is sought after.
The battle of life is in most cases fought uphill and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honor. If there were no difficulties there would be no success if there were nothing to struggle for there would be nothing to be achieved.
This is just what I have thought when I have seen slaves at work - they seem to go through the motions of labor without putting strength into them. They keep their powers in reserve for their own use at night perhaps.