Me. I did it. I’m my own worst enemy. My singing went downhill and I went downhill with it or vice versa—but nobody hit me in the throat or choked me with my necktie. It happened because I paid no attention to how I was singing. Instead, I wanted to sit back and enjoy my success and sign autographs and bank the heavy cash. Well, let me tell you, nobody who’s successful sits back and enjoys it. That I found out the hard way. You work at it all the time, even harder than when you were a nobody. Enjoyment is just a byproduct of success—you get a kick out of it, fine, but the only real fun in being successful is working hard at the thing that brings you the success. That’s what I had to learn.
You hear all the time about guys who showed big promise or who even made the top and then suddenly they flub out. Everybody says they must have developed a block or lost their touch or one of the guys at the office was out to get them or whatever. Well, maybe that’s just a fancy way of saying the thing I found out: The only guy can hurt you is yourself.
—Frank Sinatra, when asked what put him on the skids in the early 1950s (via francisalbertsinatra)
