"Success is the sum of small efforts - repeated day in and day out"
About this Quote
The phrasing also dodges the romance of the breakthrough. “Small efforts” flattens glamour into routine, and “repeated day in and day out” doubles down with a drumbeat cadence that mimics the habit it prescribes. It’s not poetry; it’s programming. The intent is motivational, but the subtext is disciplinary: stop waiting for inspiration, stop bargaining with your future self, start behaving like the kind of person who shows up regardless of mood. In that sense, it’s less about ambition than about identity maintenance.
As a publisher, Collier understood the industrial reality behind any finished product: deadlines, revisions, incremental gains. The quote reassures strivers that the mundane isn’t a detour; it’s the mechanism. It also contains a subtle moral claim: success is earned through consistency, which conveniently implies that failure is, at least partly, a failure to persist. That’s empowering and, depending on your circumstances, a little ruthless - the kind of tough optimism that sells because it offers control in an uncontrollable world.
Quote Details
| Topic | Success |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Collier, Robert. (n.d.). Success is the sum of small efforts - repeated day in and day out. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/success-is-the-sum-of-small-efforts-repeated-24619/
Chicago Style
Collier, Robert. "Success is the sum of small efforts - repeated day in and day out." FixQuotes. Accessed February 3, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/success-is-the-sum-of-small-efforts-repeated-24619/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Success is the sum of small efforts - repeated day in and day out." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/success-is-the-sum-of-small-efforts-repeated-24619/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.













