Success Quote by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Kanter’s line is a management thinker’s clean little rebuke to the social alibis we build around failure. “Let others stand in their way” isn’t just about naysayers; it’s about the quiet veto power we hand to bosses, gatekeepers, peers, and even imagined critics. The phrasing makes passivity the real culprit. The obstacle isn’t “others” so much as the decision to treat “others” as decisive.

The second half sharpens the point: “don’t go back for one more try.” That “one more” is doing heavy psychological lifting. It’s not a grand heroic comeback; it’s the smallest increment of persistence that separates a setback from a dead end. Kanter’s subtext is that most breakthroughs are less about brilliance than about tolerance for the awkward middle stage where you’ve been told no, you’ve been ignored, you’ve pitched the imperfect version, and you return anyway. In organizations, that’s the moment when promising ideas die: not because they’re wrong, but because the social cost of being seen as pushy, naive, or repetitive feels too high.

Context matters: Kanter’s work has long focused on power dynamics, innovation, and change inside institutions. Read that way, the quote isn’t a simplistic hustle mantra. It’s a pragmatic directive for navigating systems where permission is scarce and confidence is policed. “One more try” is also a strategy: iterate, re-enter, reframe, resubmit. Persistence becomes a form of agency in environments designed to ration it.