People who are successful should never forget that it's 90 per cent luck. You've got to be an eejit to be an egomaniac. I had my glory years - 'Blankety Blank,' the talk show, when I was winning every award going.
Terry WoganRead
I've always had an unsentimental view. I don't think the BBC is my auntie. I worked there for years, and you learn that they don't love you for yourself. They'll use you as long as you're popular. You shouldn't wait until it starts to wane. It can sometimes end badly.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes a pragmatic perspective on relationships with organizations, suggesting they are not inherently affectionate.
Terry Wogan's quote expresses a candid viewpoint on one's relationship with institutions like the BBC. He reflects on the transient nature of popularity and the often utilitarian basis on which such organizations operate. Wogan advises individuals not to naively assume they are valued for their identity or contributions; rather, they should recognize that their worth is often linked to their utility or success. This perception encourages a more realistic understanding of professional relationships, urging one to prepare for inevitable changes in status.
Themes
ProfessionalismRelationshipsPopularityRealismUtilitarian
In practice
Example use cases
In a talk about career longevity, one might quote Wogan to illustrate the importance of understanding how companies operate.
More from Terry Wogan
All quotes →A couple of years before he died, I kissed my father goodbye. He said, 'Son, you haven't kissed me since you were a little boy.' It went straight to my heart, and I kissed him whenever I saw him after that, and my sons and I always kiss whenever we meet.
Terry WoganRead
I get a lot of letters from people saying, 'How do I get into radio, how do I get into telly?' and I wish there was an answer, because there's no ladder. There are no parameters. You've just got to go in wherever you can, make the tea, and slowly make your way up the ladder.
Terry WoganRead
I say to my children, the reason that marriage - and having children - is so important is that it stops you thinking about yourself. The way to happiness is to give yourself to others and to think of others before you think of yourself.
Terry WoganRead
Similar quotes
Any man who's not willing to take half a loaf in a negotiation, well, that man never went to bed hungry.
Lyndon B. JohnsonRead
Many a spoken word is more piercing than an attack.
Ali Ibn Abi TalibRead
Sometimes we are too polite with our suffering and allow it to dominate our life.
Dzogchen Ponlop RinpocheRead
My advice to myself and to everyone else, particularly young people, is to turn on, tune in and drop out. By drop out, I mean to detach yourself from involvement in secular, external social games. But the dropping out has to occur internally before it can occur externally. I'm not telling kids just to quit school; I'm not telling people to quit their jobs. That is an inevitable development of the process of turning on and tuning in.
Timothy LearyRead
I wonder if we might pledge ourselves to remember what life is really all about—not to be afraid that we're less flashy than the next, not to worry that our influence is not that of a tornado, but rather that of a grain of sand in an oyster! Do we have that kind of patience?
Fred RogersRead
I am simply impressed by the unexpected insights which shower down on me when my job is to imagine, as contrasted with the woodenly familiar ideas which clutter my desk when my job is to tell the truth.
Kurt VonnegutRead