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Success Quote by Percy Ross

"You've got to ask! Asking is, in my opinion, the world's most powerful - and neglected - secret to success and happiness"

About this Quote

Percy Ross frames ambition as an act of speech, not just hustle. "You've got to ask!" lands like a sales mantra, but the subtext is more radical: success is often less about deserving than about initiating. Ross, a businessman who built a public persona on bold giveaways and attention-getting philanthropy, understood that opportunity doesn not simply appear for the patient and well-qualified; it responds to the audacious. The exclamation points matter. This isnt a gentle self-help suggestion. Its a worldview where the default setting of society is "no one is thinking about you", so youd better knock.

The phrase "world's most powerful - and neglected - secret" is classic business-era mythmaking, but it also exposes a cultural discomfort. Asking risks rejection, embarrassment, looking needy, or being seen as transactional. Ross is betting that most people would rather preserve dignity than increase odds. In that sense, "neglected" is an indictment of middle-class etiquette: we are trained to wait our turn, to not impose, to not appear hungry.

Pairing "success and happiness" is the most revealing move. Ross collapses external achievement and internal wellbeing into the same mechanism: agency. Asking becomes a practice of self-authorization, a way to declare "I am allowed to want things" in a world that rewards quiet compliance. Its a motivational line, yes, but its also a map of power: those who already have it ask constantly, often without even noticing theyre doing it.

Quote Details

TopicMotivational
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Ross, Percy. (2026, January 16). You've got to ask! Asking is, in my opinion, the world's most powerful - and neglected - secret to success and happiness. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/youve-got-to-ask-asking-is-in-my-opinion-the-134376/

Chicago Style
Ross, Percy. "You've got to ask! Asking is, in my opinion, the world's most powerful - and neglected - secret to success and happiness." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/youve-got-to-ask-asking-is-in-my-opinion-the-134376/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"You've got to ask! Asking is, in my opinion, the world's most powerful - and neglected - secret to success and happiness." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/youve-got-to-ask-asking-is-in-my-opinion-the-134376/. Accessed 7 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Percy Ross (November 22, 1916 - November 14, 2001) was a Businessman from USA.

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