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Life & Wisdom Quote by Sam Ewing

"Success has a simple formula: do your best, and people may like it"

About this Quote

Ewing’s line flatters the bootstrap instinct, then quietly undercuts it. “Success has a simple formula” is the kind of promise you’d expect from a self-help paperback or a commencement speech: clean, portable, reassuring. But the second clause breaks the spell. Not “people will like it,” not even “people like it,” but “people may like it” - a single hedging word that drags luck, taste, gatekeeping, and timing back onto the stage.

The intent feels corrective. Ewing isn’t selling cynicism so much as inoculating readers against the most common lie packaged as motivation: that effort guarantees reward. “Do your best” is framed as the only part you control; everything else is contingent, socially mediated, and faintly arbitrary. The quote’s moral center isn’t ambition, it’s agency: work hard, yes, but don’t confuse applause with worth.

Subtext: success is not purely meritocratic, and the marketplace of attention is fickle. Your best might land with the wrong audience, in the wrong decade, under the wrong algorithm. That doesn’t make the work meaningless; it makes “success” a referendum, not a scoreboard.

Contextually, the line reads like a mid-century American antidote to hustle culture before hustle culture had a name. Coming from an author, it also doubles as a wry creative credo: you can labor over the page, revise until it shines, and still be met with indifference. The elegance is in its modesty - it offers a plan without pretending it’s a guarantee.

Quote Details

TopicSuccess
Source
Verified source: 1000 Brilliant Achievement Quotes (2004)ISBN: 9780974856230 · ID: jHeIksJvQ-0C
Text match: 95.00%   Provider: Google Books
Evidence:
... Success has a simple formula : do your best , and people may like it . " ... Sam Ewing " What is the recipe for successful achievement ? To my mind there are just four essential ingredients : Choose a career you love . . . Give it ...
FeaturedThis quote was our Quote of the Day on September 21, 2025
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Ewing, Sam. (2026, January 11). Success has a simple formula: do your best, and people may like it. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/success-has-a-simple-formula-do-your-best-and-102996/

Chicago Style
Ewing, Sam. "Success has a simple formula: do your best, and people may like it." FixQuotes. January 11, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/success-has-a-simple-formula-do-your-best-and-102996/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Success has a simple formula: do your best, and people may like it." FixQuotes, 11 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/success-has-a-simple-formula-do-your-best-and-102996/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Sam Add to List
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About the Author

Sam Ewing

Sam Ewing (December 13, 1920 - May 5, 2001) was a Author from USA.

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