Success Quote by Chet Atkins

"A long apprenticeship is the most logical way to success. The only alternative is overnight stardom, but I can't give you a formula for that"

Chet Atkins, Musician

About this Quote

Chet Atkins smuggles a hard truth into an easy grin: mastery is mostly time, and time doesn’t sell. Calling the “long apprenticeship” the “most logical way” is classic craftsman talk - practical, almost engineering-minded - but it also pushes back against the mythology that genius just arrives fully formed. In a music economy that loves the breakout story, Atkins insists on the boring virtue that actually pays: years of being bad in private, then decent in bars, then reliable in studios, then indispensable.

The second sentence lands like a punchline with teeth. “The only alternative is overnight stardom” acknowledges the fantasy everyone secretly wants, then immediately punctures it: “I can’t give you a formula for that.” That’s not false modesty; it’s a refusal to participate in the self-help-industrial complex that pretends randomness can be packaged as strategy. Atkins is telling you that luck exists, that visibility is chaotic, and that pretending otherwise is a kind of con.

Context matters: Atkins wasn’t just a guitar virtuoso; he was a Nashville architect - a session player, producer, and label executive who watched talent collide with timing, trends, and gatekeepers. His career was built on consistency, taste, and the quiet social skill of being the person everyone wants in the room. The subtext is generous but unsentimental: work is the only part you control, and it’s the only part that compounds. Overnight stardom can happen; it just can’t be planned. Apprenticeship can.

Quote Details

Topic	Success
Source	Help us find the source
Cite

More Quotes by Chet Add to List

About the Author

Chet Atkins (June 20, 1924 - June 30, 2001) was a Musician from USA.

7 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

"I've been working for many years and I think I've managed to work with some of the best people in the business, which has been rewarding and an apprenticeship"

Aaron Eckhart, Actor

Aaron Eckhart

"Apprentice is the beginner - the first years you work in a craft in the European sense you are an apprentice. That takes 3 or 4 years. Then you are a journeyman. You can go from one master to another and learn other tricks and other secrets"

Josef Albers, Artist

"If you have real passion for a career in game shows, be willing to serve an apprenticeship; it's the best way to learn"

Randy West, Entertainer

"The very first step towards success in any occupation is to become interested in it"

William Osler, Scientist

"It took several years of hard work in small roles before I attained stardom"

Bela Lugosi, Actor

"Regarding one's career: always be prepared, no short cuts - hard work is the only alternative that really works"

Kiana Tom, Model

"Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine"

David Ogilvy, Businessman

David Ogilvy

"The best thing that can come with success is the knowledge that it is nothing to long for"

Liv Ullmann, Actress

Liv Ullmann

"I came into the industry at a time when there weren't a lot of choices to what you could do"

Joe Morton, Actor

"If you're young enough, any kind of writing you do for a short period of time is a marvelous apprenticeship"

Irwin Shaw, Novelist

"A business like acting is 90% luck. You can be a star one minute and out of work the next"

Amber Tamblyn, Actress

Amber Tamblyn

"Doing any job for too long limits your possibilities"

Michael Zaslow, Actor

"The profession of a prostitute is the only career in which the maximum income is paid to the newest apprentice"

William Booth, Leader

"In any profession it gets to be a grind"

Denzel Washington, Actor

Denzel Washington

"Well, you know, if you get into the profession because you think you can make a lot of money, you can never become successful"

Martin Yan, Celebrity

Martin Yan

"I used to think that driving, sleepless, ambitious labor was what you needed to succeed"

Charles Kuralt, Journalist

"I would suggest maintaining a life and a career outside the Industry. This is a fickle business and a lousy one to make a steady living in, so it's important to have a good family, friends, job and education to fall back on"

Fred Savage, Actor

"The greatest success is creating whatever you want without conditions. I don't do commissions unless I really want to, because it's like having a job"

Richard MacDonald, Sculptor

"Without hard work and discipline it is difficult to be a top professional"

Jahangir Khan, Athlete

Jahangir Khan

"Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go so much further than people with vastly superior talent"

Sophia Loren, Actress