“Yes,” he went on, “success is a most fleet-footed—almost a
phantom—goddess. You pursue her eagerly and seem to grasp her, and then
you see her speeding on in front again. This is, of course, because one
is rarely satisfied with present success. There is always something yet
to be attained. To speak personally, I never worked harder in my life
than I am working now. If I should relax, I fear that the structure
which I have built up would come tumbling about my ears. It is my
desire to advance my standard every year,—to plant it higher up on
the hill, and to never yield a foot of ground. This requires constant
effort. I find my reward, not in financial returns, for these are
hardly commensurate with the outlay of labor; nor in the applause of
others, for this is not always discriminative or judicious; but in the
practice of my art. This suggests what, it seems to me, is the true
secret of success.
“Love your work; then you will do it well. It is its own reward,
though it brings others. If a young man would rather be an actor than
anything else, and he knows what he is about, let him, by all means,
be an actor. He will probably become a good one. It is the same, of
course, in many occupations. If you like your work, hold on to it, and
eventually you are likely to win. If you don’t like it, you can’t be
too quick in getting into something that suits you better.”