Success Quote by Al Lewis

There is a distinctly showbiz sleight-of-hand in Al Lewis's line: it takes the harshest verdict in American life - public failure - and simply refuses to grant it jurisdiction. Coming from an actor, the move makes sense. Performance is one of the few jobs where effort is invisible, outcomes are volatile, and "success" is often a referendum conducted by strangers. Lewis isn't offering a Hallmark consolation; he's redrawing the scoreboard.

The specific intent is motivational, but not the sugary kind. "As long as you gave it your best shot" sets a private standard that can't be litigated by a roomful of critics. Then he slips in the real antagonist: "in the opinion of others". Those four words expose failure as a social label, not a fact. The quote isn't denying that you can lose a role, bomb an audition, or watch a project die. It's insisting that those events aren't the final measure of you.

Subtextually, it's a defense against the corrosive economy of judgment that surrounds artists: agents, reviews, ratings, the casual cruelty of audiences. In acting, you can do good work and still be edited out, miscast, under-directed, or simply unlucky. Lewis frames "best shot" as the one piece of the process you own, an ethic of craft over applause.

Context matters: Lewis lived through eras when careers could be made or broken by gatekeepers, and later, by mass media. His line anticipates today's attention marketplace, where "failed" is a quick tag. He pushes back with a quieter, sturdier definition of winning: integrity under uncertainty.