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Success Quote by Mario Andretti

"Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek"

About this Quote

Andretti frames success as a two-engine machine: desire gets you off the line, but discipline wins the race. Coming from a driver whose career was literally measured in lap times and mechanical failure rates, this isn’t self-help mist; it’s a pit-lane philosophy. “Desire” is cast as ignition, a spark anyone can feel. The harder claim arrives immediately after: what separates fantasy from results is “determination and commitment,” language that feels muscular and repetitive on purpose. The sentence keeps tightening the screws - commitment to pursuit, commitment to excellence - until the reader is left with a single moral: wanting is cheap; staying on it is the real cost.

The subtext is a quiet rebuke to the romance of talent. In celebrity culture, we’re trained to treat achievement as charisma plus luck, a highlight reel with the boring parts cut out. Andretti drags the boring parts back into frame and insists they’re the point. “Unrelenting” signals a temperament more than a strategy: the willingness to show up when you’re tired, unpraised, or behind. Even “excellence” here isn’t vague prestige; it’s the racer’s baseline of precision, consistency, and risk management.

Context matters: Andretti’s era demanded stamina across seasons, travel, and danger, where one lapse could end more than a career. His intent is motivational, yes, but also corrective: stop fetishizing desire and start respecting the grind that makes success repeatable.

Quote Details

TopicMotivational
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Andretti, Mario. (2026, January 15). Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/desire-is-the-key-to-motivation-but-its-81770/

Chicago Style
Andretti, Mario. "Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/desire-is-the-key-to-motivation-but-its-81770/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/desire-is-the-key-to-motivation-but-its-81770/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Mario Andretti (born February 28, 1940) is a Celebrity from USA.

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