Success Quote by David Geffen

The line plays like a humblebrag with the sharp edges filed down: David Geffen, one of the most consequential dealmakers in modern entertainment, insists he stumbled into the industry by accident. “I just needed a job” is a disarming opener, a working-class alibi that positions ambition as necessity rather than appetite. Then comes the punch: he “didn’t even know there was a show business!” The exclamation mark (whether his or the reteller’s) matters. It turns ignorance into a comic prop, a way of making the mogul origin story feel improbably human.

The intent isn’t to erase his drive; it’s to recast it. Geffen’s career is often read through the lens of power: the super-agent ecosystem, the rise of corporate entertainment, the era when music, film, and TV became less bohemia than balance sheet. This anecdote offers a counter-myth, one that flatters the American appetite for accidental success while sidestepping the more controversial truth: show business is famously hard to enter unless you’re relentless, connected, or both.

Subtextually, “usher at the CBS Theatre” signals the real engine of his ascent: proximity. Not glamour, not talent, but access to the building where decisions get made. The joke about not knowing “show business” exists is also a wink at how the industry operates like a closed city-state; outsiders can live nearby and still not see the gates. Geffen’s line sells the fantasy that the gate can swing open for anyone with a timecard, even as his own story demonstrates how quickly curiosity becomes strategy.