Quote of the Day: Marvin Davis on Success

It’s Saturday morning in July, and you’re standing in a bright showroom, or scrolling a slick webpage, telling yourself this purchase is “practical.” The engine note, the polished metal, the unboxing video promise a clean hit of excitement after a week of meetings and obligations. You’re not reckless; you’re rewarding yourself. And yet a quieter thought taps the glass: why does the fun keep getting pricier? “As men get older, the toys get more expensive.”

Marvin Davis isn’t mocking desire; he’s naming its migration. Childhood “toys” are small enough to fit in a backpack and cheap enough to be wished into existence. Adulthood doesn’t erase that appetite for play, it upgrades it. The objects change, but the underlying itch remains: novelty, mastery, collecting, the thrill of control in a life that can feel increasingly managed by calendars and expectations.

But the expensive-toy era is also where joy can quietly turn into performance. A motorcycle becomes a signal, a watch a résumé, a house an outward proof of inner arrival. Culture applauds the upgrade, so the line between delight and display blurs. That’s why the quote matters: it asks whether your purchase is feeding genuine happiness or merely renting status for a weekend.

Davis knew the terrain. As an oil tycoon and dealmaker with marquee assets, from Twentieth Century Fox to the Beverly Hills Hotel, he watched money amplify possibility, and he also used it for philanthropy, proving that “expensive” can point outward, not just inward.

July 14 is Bastille Day, a reminder that revolutions begin when people refuse to confuse symbols with substance. Apply that today: buy the toy if it brings real play, but keep a budget for success that doesn’t come in a box, on a trailer, or with monthly payments.