The very first step towards success in any occupation is to become interested in it.

Osler’s remark links achievement less to innate talent than to cultivated attention. “The very first step” suggests that before technique, credentials, or ambition, one must develop genuine curiosity about the work itself. Interest functions as a practical engine: it sustains effort through difficulty, sharpens observation, and makes learning self-reinforcing. In Osler’s medical worldview—where careful bedside attention and lifelong study were central—interest is also an ethical stance: to be interested is to take the subject (or patient) seriously. The quote thus elevates engagement as the precondition for competence and, ultimately, success.