Success Quote by George Steinbrenner

Steinbrenner’s line reads like an apology that still insists on being an argument. The first half is conspicuously blunt: “I haven’t always done a good job” concedes competence; “I haven’t always been successful” concedes outcomes. Then comes the pivot that tells you exactly who’s talking: “but I know that I have tried.” It’s the classic American move of swapping the scoreboard for the work ethic, as if effort can be filed as evidence when results are messy. For a man whose public identity was built on winning, that shift is doing a lot of reputational labor.

The intent isn’t self-flagellation; it’s control of the narrative. By naming the failures himself, Steinbrenner preempts harsher framing from everyone else: the press, angry fans, rivals, even history. He doesn’t litigate specific mistakes because specificity invites cross-examination. “Tried” is strategically unprovable. You can question his tactics, but you can’t easily deny his appetite.

The subtext is also a quiet request for absolution without surrendering authority. He’s not saying, “I was wrong.” He’s saying, “I cared enough to swing hard.” In the context of Steinbrenner as a businessman-owner archetype - impulsive, demanding, famously impatient - the line attempts to rebrand volatility as devotion. It reframes an often-chaotic legacy into a familiar moral: judge me by my intensity, not my imperfections. In a culture that romanticizes grind, it’s a shrewd closing statement.