"Success is like winning the sweepstakes or getting killed in an automobile crash. It always happens to somebody else"
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This quote by Allan Sherman captures a sense of suspicion and paradox about the nature of success. By comparing success to winning the sweepstakes or experiencing a deadly car crash, Sherman presents success as an occasion that frequently seems remote and not likely, something that occurs to others rather than to oneself.
The analogy to winning the sweepstakes suggests that success can feel as rare and random as a lottery win. Many individuals desire this kind of success, but the truth is that only a few attain it-- often through a mix of effort, chance, and luck. Just as people purchase lottery tickets hoping for a possibility at wealth, individuals pursue success without any warranty of realizing it. This contrast underscores the unpredictability and elusiveness of success, highlighting how it is viewed as something amazing and typically out of reach.
On the flip side, the comparison to an automobile crash introduces a darker, more fatalistic viewpoint. Auto accident are normally unanticipated and terrible events that nobody wishes to experience. By likening success to such an incident, Sherman wryly recommends that, for some, success might feel simply as unfathomable or out of the ordinary since both success and mishaps are stories we often hear taking place to others however hardly ever to ourselves.
This dual analogy ultimately underscores a common human experience: the propensity to see considerable life occasions-- whether favorable or negative-- as occurring outside our own sphere. Individuals often see others achieving fantastic success or sustaining unfortunate occasions while feeling disconnected from such experiences themselves. Sherman's quote reflects a specific irony and uncertainty, provoking thought of our perceptions of success and the factors that add to it, while implicitly encouraging self-reflection on how we specify and pursue success in our own lives.
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