Success Quote by Hortense Odlum

Work, in Odlum's framing, is less a rung on a prestige ladder than a stage for character. The line quietly flips the usual hierarchy: dignity is not something a job grants you; it's something you confer on the job through disciplined effort. That is a bracing idea coming from a businesswoman who rose to lead Bonwit Teller during the Depression, an era when employment was scarce, status anxiety was loud, and "any job" could mean survival.

The intent is moral and managerial at once. On the surface, it's motivational: show up, bring your best, and your labor matters. Underneath, it's a soft rebuke to both entitlement and contempt. If you think certain kinds of work are beneath you, Odlum suggests the real smallness is in the attitude, not the task. If you feel trapped in work that society undervalues, she offers a reclaiming move: agency through excellence.

The subtext also carries a distinctly American bargain: self-worth can be rebuilt daily through performance. That can be empowering, but it's not innocent. The emphasis on individual determination subtly sidesteps structural realities (pay, safety, discrimination) that make "give your best" easier for some than others. Still, as a piece of workplace rhetoric, it works because it relocates meaning from external validation to internal standards. It's an argument for dignity as a practice, not a title, and it flatters without pandering: you don't need a glamorous role to be consequential; you need a deliberate one.