Merit-Based Success Quotes

At the end of the day, I'm an actor. I'm not here to sell other stuff or use off-screen things to generate whether or not I work. If I'm any good, I'll work; if I'm not, I won't.

I've never been someone who's been given work because of the way I look or because I have some box office appeal. I get work because people know I'm swinging as hard as I can, trying to connect, giving it my level best. I have a face for radio, but here I am doing what I do.

Not evil, but good, has come to the race from the accumulation of wealth by those who have the ability and energy that produce it.

I didn't get ahead by sleeping with people. Girls, take heart!

David Cassidy is my father, yes... But for me, it was always really important with acting to stay in class, study it, and earn it on my own. My dad didn't help me.

To some people, I am kind of a Merlin who takes lots of crazy chances, but rarely makes mistakes. I've made some bad ones, but fortunately, the successes have come along fast enough to cover up the mistakes. When you go to bat as many times as I do, and continually improve upon your mistakes, you're bound to get a good average.

I grew up believing in meritocracy and the American dream. My parents came here from India. They had no connections. My brother and I went to public schools, and both of us succeeded.

Self-Made Men are the men who owe little or nothing to birth, relationship, friendly surroundings; to wealth inherited or to early approved means of education; who are what they are, without the aid of any favoring conditions by which other men usually rise in the world and achieve great results.

Very few people I know deserve to live out their dreams more than Daniel Bryan.

I'm persuaded that sports is the one place where the rules are pretty well set out, where fans are equal. And if you got game or you're a good official, you make it here, whether you're white or you're black.

I'm always competitive, but if I didn't win fair and square, I didn't win. And I want to win if I'm genuinely better than my competitor.

I believe in singing for my supper. I'll never accept a grant because what I do should be able to be founded purely on free enterprise.

I'm in this sport to win but win by being the best, not by being lucky.

It shocks me, the rumors people start: that I have the title because of my boyfriend. If that was the case, I would have gotten the title when I came back years ago and still had the title. He has nothing to do with it.

My message to students is that if you want to become an entrepreneur and save the world, definitely don't skip college. But go to a school that you can afford. You'll be freed from the chains of debt and succeed on your own ambition and merit.

I have friends that are super talented, that are far more talented than I am in certain areas, but it just doesn't happen for them. Sometimes you feel guilty for your success because you know people who deserve it way more.

Sometimes, more money is spent on promotion of a film than the making of it. I don't understand that logic. The movie should run on its merit.

Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.

If my work is liked, not just Karan Johar or Remo D'Souza, anyone would give me roles.

Despite what you hear about the publishing industry being a fixed game that you can only get in if you know somebody, I'm here in person to tell you it ain't so. If your stuff is really any good, sooner or later some editor will take a chance on you.

Most of these people who are celebrities now don't do anything to deserve it, so by that fact alone, I don't want to be one.

I don't believe in legacy. I feel that the 'mega' tag definitely acts as a platform, but after that, it's all on the individual. Legacy does not mean a crown that is passed on; we have to create our own paths.

I assumed that, if I put my head down and did great work, what I deserved would come to me. What you deserve will not come to you. It is only in advocating for yourself that you will receive what you deserve.

I didn't want to write a book as Stephen King's son, because all I did was get born, and that's not much of an accomplishment. If that was the reason my book was published, it wouldn't be worth the paper it was printed on. I wanted to do my own thing.