Quote of the Day: Arnold H. Glasow on Success

In the postwar boom years, when TV dinners, corporate ladders, and “push-button” convenience sold the fantasy that life could be streamlined, America also learned a harsher lesson: progress still demanded sweat. That tension feels newly urgent in 2026, as automation and algorithmic feeds tempt us to wait for a perfect moment, a viral break, a frictionless path. Against that seductive passivity lands the blunt, combustible reminder: “Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.”

Glasow’s line works because it refuses the romance of accident. “Spontaneous combustion” is the dream that outcomes ignite on their own, that talent will announce itself, that motivation will arrive like weather, that somebody else will spot us and lift us. But achievement is rarely an event; it’s a chain reaction. The spark is chosen. The heat is maintained. And the fuel is ordinary, repeatable behavior: showing up, shipping work, making the call, asking for feedback, trying again.

“Set yourself on fire” isn’t a plea for burnout. It’s a demand for agency. Fire is focused energy, disciplined intensity that turns intention into momentum. It also clears space: the willingness to burn off complacency, retire a comfortable identity, and make room for a better one. That’s where resilience becomes practical: not heroic suffering, but the capacity to keep generating heat when results lag behind effort.

Arnold H. Glasow earned his authority the hard way, as a businessman who understood incentives and as a satirist who could puncture self-deception with a single sentence. His wit isn’t decoration; it’s a management tool for the self.

No headline is required to make October feel like a turning point. Use this Saturday to choose one deliberate act that creates motion, send the proposal, outline the plan, practice the skill, and let success become less a wish and more a fire you tend.