Daily Inspiration Quote by Chita Rivera

Luck is a dancer’s favorite superstition, and Chita Rivera knows exactly how to wield it. “I have been very lucky, I have only had one bad experience” is built like a classic showbiz line: breezy on the surface, quietly brutal underneath. In an industry that runs on rejection, bruised egos, and the everyday indignities of being evaluated for a living, claiming just one “bad experience” reads less like literal accounting and more like a survival strategy - a choice to narrate a career through gratitude instead of grievance.

The first clause does cultural work. “Very lucky” isn’t false modesty so much as a nod to the precariousness of a performer’s life: injuries happen, roles evaporate, taste changes, sexism and gatekeeping don’t politely announce themselves. Rivera’s generation, especially for a Puerto Rican woman navigating mid-century Broadway, had every reason to collect scars. The line’s elegance is that it refuses to itemize them. She withholds the war stories, which is its own flex.

Then comes the hairline crack: “only had one bad experience.” One is both specific and conveniently vague, inviting curiosity while protecting the speaker. It suggests there was a moment severe enough to be labeled, singular enough to be remembered, and contained enough to be quarantined from the rest of the narrative. The subtext is professionalism as armor: you don’t last by being unhurt; you last by deciding what gets to define you.