My dad has always been very proud of me but I think I have exceeded his expectations. When I told him I wanted to be an actor and moved to New York City, I think he assumed I would be playing the guitar on the subway and collecting spare change in my guitar case. The fact that I’m not doing that means that I’m a huge success.

Ferguson frames “success” as a modest, humorous benchmark rather than a grand measure of fame. By contrasting his father’s pride with the father’s low-stakes expectation—an aspiring actor reduced to busking for coins—he highlights the precariousness commonly associated with moving to New York to pursue the arts. The punchline (“The fact that I’m not doing that…”) gently satirizes both parental anxiety and the romantic myth of the starving artist. The quote also suggests that achievement can be defined relationally: exceeding the expectations of those who worry about you, and attaining basic stability, can feel like a major victory even before conventional accolades enter the picture.