"Control success before it controls you"
About this Quote
“Control success before it controls you” has the snap of a road-tested warning, the kind you only earn after watching the spotlight chew through people who thought fame was a prize instead of a force. Coming from Dwight Yoakam - a musician who built a career by zigging away from Nashville orthodoxy and into his own lane - it reads less like motivational poster fodder and more like a survival tip from someone who’s seen the machinery up close.
The intent is practical: don’t treat success as a finish line, treat it as a new set of pressures that arrive disguised as rewards. “Control” here isn’t about arrogance; it’s about boundaries. Success brings money, attention, expectation, and a chorus of yes-men who all have a plan for your next move. If you don’t decide what success is for - creative freedom, stability, reach, legacy - it decides for you, usually in the language of sales, branding, and repeatable product.
The subtext is that success is addictive and externally administered. It trains you to chase validation: bigger venues, higher chart positions, louder applause. For an artist, that can quietly swap risk for replication. Yoakam’s career context matters: a country outsider who folded punk energy into honky-tonk, he’s a case study in refusing to let the market flatten a personality into a formula.
It works because it flips the usual fantasy. Success isn’t the thing you gain; it’s the thing you have to manage before it starts managing you.
The intent is practical: don’t treat success as a finish line, treat it as a new set of pressures that arrive disguised as rewards. “Control” here isn’t about arrogance; it’s about boundaries. Success brings money, attention, expectation, and a chorus of yes-men who all have a plan for your next move. If you don’t decide what success is for - creative freedom, stability, reach, legacy - it decides for you, usually in the language of sales, branding, and repeatable product.
The subtext is that success is addictive and externally administered. It trains you to chase validation: bigger venues, higher chart positions, louder applause. For an artist, that can quietly swap risk for replication. Yoakam’s career context matters: a country outsider who folded punk energy into honky-tonk, he’s a case study in refusing to let the market flatten a personality into a formula.
It works because it flips the usual fantasy. Success isn’t the thing you gain; it’s the thing you have to manage before it starts managing you.
Quote Details
| Topic | Success |
|---|
More Quotes by Dwight
Add to List
