Life & Wisdom Quote by Richard Grant

Success in Grant's framing isn't a finish line; it's a spotlight that turns into a laser sight. "If you're doing well, you're a target" flips the usual triumph narrative into something predatory and strangely mundane. The sentence works because it refuses the comfort of vague envy and goes straight to the mechanics of attention: people notice you not as a person but as an opportunity.

The pivot is the brutally transactional second clause: "nobody's interested in you except how you can be of use to them". It's not just cynicism for its own sake; it's a diagnosis of how social ecosystems recalibrate when someone gains status, money, credibility, or momentum. Doing well changes your perceived category. You're no longer "one of us", you're a resource node. Invitations, praise, and curiosity start to smell like extraction. Even affection can arrive wrapped in professional interest, and even old relationships can quietly renegotiate terms.

Grant's intent feels less like paranoia than a warning about the hidden tax of visibility. The word "target" implies intent and aim: attention isn't neutral; it comes with agendas. For an author especially, the line reads as lived experience in publishing and cultural life, where "networking" is polite language for leverage, and where a rising profile attracts not just readers but gatekeepers, opportunists, and would-be allies looking for proximity.

The subtext is a hard-earned ethic: keep your boundaries, interrogate flattery, and don't confuse being sought-after with being seen. Success amplifies everything, including other people's motives.