Success Quote by Arnold H. Glasow

A businessman’s pep talk, sharpened into a single theatrical pun: if your life is an intermission, you’re just killing time between the parts that supposedly matter. Glasow’s line works because it frames ordinary drift as something faintly embarrassing - the lights are up, the audience is restless, and you’re still waiting for the “real” show to start. It’s not arguing for constant hustle so much as refusing the cultural permission slip to stay on pause.

The word choice is doing quiet heavy lifting. “Mission” borrows moral authority from religion and the military: purpose, discipline, stakes beyond comfort. It implies a north star that organizes decisions, not just a list of goals. “Intermission,” by contrast, is structured passivity. You’re present, but you’re not participating. That’s the subtextual jab at a certain middle-class modernity: the life arranged around postponement - after the promotion, after the kids are grown, after retirement, after you’ve “earned it.”

Glasow’s era matters. Born in 1905 and writing through the long midcentury churn of war, corporate expansion, and self-help’s rise, he’s speaking to a world where “meaning” is increasingly outsourced to work, status, and productivity. The quote flatters the reader with agency while also applying pressure: if you’re not on a mission, you’re wasting the ticket. It’s aspirational, yes, but it’s also a rebuke to the soothing lie that waiting is a plan.