Success Quote by Arnold H. Glasow

Glasow frames ambition as arson with a business suit on, and the joke lands because it’s only half a joke. “Spontaneous combustion” evokes the fantasy version of success: the overnight breakthrough, the lucky break, the effortless virality. He dismisses that myth with a pseudo-scientific shrug, then yanks the spotlight back to agency: you must supply the spark, the fuel, the oxygen. The line is motivational, but its bite comes from how aggressively it refuses to coddle you.

“Set yourself on fire” isn’t a gentle call to work hard; it’s a demand for self-ignition. The subtext is that nobody else is coming to light the match. In a business context, it reads like an antidote to passive careerism: waiting for recognition, waiting for a boss to notice, waiting for conditions to be perfect. Glasow’s image insists that momentum is manufactured, not discovered.

The metaphor also smuggles in a darker truth about modern achievement culture: it normalizes sacrifice. Fire is energy, charisma, intensity - but it’s also consumption. To burn brightly is, by definition, to be used up. That tension is why the quote sticks. It flatters the reader with the promise of power (“you can ignite this”), while quietly warning that success has a cost, and the bill is paid in attention, time, and comfort.

As a businessman, Glasow isn’t selling mysticism; he’s selling a model of self-starting grit. The rhetoric works because it’s vivid, blunt, and slightly unsafe - like the kind of advice you remember because it feels risky to believe.