Success Quote by Ross Perot

Perot’s image is pure American grit, but it’s also a CEO’s diagnosis disguised as a pep talk: the real enemy isn’t the market, the opponent, or bad luck. It’s morale management. By choosing the “one yard line” and “last minute of the game,” he collapses the messy, years-long reality of building something into a single, televisual crisis moment. That compression is the trick. It makes quitting feel not merely unfortunate but irrational, almost absurd - like spiking the ball at the goal line and walking off the field.

The intent is motivational, but the subtext is managerial. Perot isn’t romanticizing struggle for its own sake; he’s arguing that most outcomes are decided after the boring middle, when costs have already been sunk and fatigue starts whispering “cut your losses.” In business, that’s the quarter when cash runs tight, the product almost works, the sales pipeline is close to converting. His metaphor doubles as a warning against the psychological cliff at the end of long projects: the closer you get, the more pressure concentrates, and the more tempting it is to escape by stopping.

Context matters. Perot made his name selling relentless execution - first at IBM, then at EDS - and later positioned himself as a plainspoken outsider in politics. The football framing isn’t accidental; it’s populist language that flatters the listener’s toughness while quietly insisting on discipline. There’s a narrow, bracing worldview here: success is near, often; failure is frequently self-inflicted; persistence is a competitive advantage. It’s inspiring, and also slightly unforgiving, because it implies that many “losses” are actually decisions.