Compay Segundo Quotes

Some say I'm an overnight success. Well, that was a very long night that lasted about 10 years.

My dad told me, 'It takes fifteen years to be an overnight success', and it took me seventeen and a half years.

Nobody just said, 'Here, be a star!' I've joked many times that I was a seven-year overnight success.

Never give up. Just follow your dreams because this business can be so hard sometimes. It doesn't happen overnight where you get an audition or even a callback and get the role. It takes time.

Don't expect fame to come overnight. That filtered through to me in my own career. Look at Madonna: she's not the best singer in the world, but she's got where she has through hard work.

Actually, I'm an overnight success, but it took twenty years.

There's no such thing as an overnight success.

There's people that say “It's not fair You have all that stuff.” I wasn't born with it. It was a horrible process to get to this. It took me my whole life. If you're new at this- and by “new at it.” I mean 15 years in, or even 20- you're just starting to grow traction. Young musicians believe they should be able to throw a band together and be famous, and anything that's in their way is unfair and evil. What are you, in your 20s, you picked up a guitar? Give it a minute.

There is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs.

Success is about dedication. You may not be where you want to be or do what you want to do when you're on the journey. But you've got to be willing to have vision and foresight that leads you to an incredible end.

I was 40 years old before I became an overnight success, and I'd been publishing for 20 years.

It's so funny looking back, but my so-called overnight success actually took 15 years. I remember when I didn't have any money, and my only car was mom's Hyundai.

I've been playing music for over 20 years now. I started playing when I was 14 years old. To everyone who has said I was an overnight success... where have you been the last 20 years?

Everybody wants to be famous, but nobody wants to do the work. I live by that. You grind hard so you can play hard. At the end of the day, you put all the work in, and eventually it'll pay off. It could be in a year, it could be in 30 years. Eventually, your hard work will pay off.

I didn't start out with a spectacular movie. Many people think you don't have to go from nothing to the top; they think you start at the top.

There's no such thing as an overnight success. It took me a long to get there.

It's perseverance that's the key. It's persevering for long enough to achieve your potential.

Everyone's like, 'overnight sensation.' It's not overnight. It's years of hard work.

You must remain focused on your journey to greatness.

I always believed that I could make it or I would never have spent so many years trying to get here.

My sister was cute, she said, 'Oh my gosh, you're an overnight success.' 'Oh,' I said, 'this is the longest night.' I've been at it since 1982.

I worked every single night, not even caring if I got paid, to get myself known. Within a year I was on the Royal Variety Show and that was it.

To become a superstar, it's not only the voice. You have to have all these things: talent, determination, be ready to work, ready to understand.

Success always demands a greater effort.

There's only one way to make a beginning, and that is to begin; and begin with hard work, and patience, prepared for all the disappoint­ment s.