When the need to succeed is as bad as the need to breathe, then you'll be successful.

Eric Thomas (often billed as “ET the Hip Hop Preacher”) popularized this line in the late 2000s–early 2010s as part of his motivational speaking circuit, where he drew on his own biography—homelessness, dropping out of school, and later earning advanced degrees—to frame success as a matter of relentless drive rather than talent alone. The quote is typically delivered in the cadence of a keynote or viral clip aimed at students, athletes, and aspiring professionals, emphasizing urgency and sacrifice. It belongs to Thomas’s broader repertoire of exhortations that equate achievement with an all-consuming commitment, often paired with stories of adversity and “no excuses” discipline.

The saying argues that success follows when desire becomes instinctive and non-negotiable—like breathing. By comparing ambition to a biological necessity, Thomas intensifies the idea of commitment: goals cannot remain optional, convenient, or dependent on mood. The quote also implies a threshold of seriousness: wanting success “kind of” is insufficient; one must prioritize it over comfort, distraction, and even short-term pleasure. As rhetoric, it is deliberately extreme, meant to shock listeners into examining their habits and effort. Its significance lies less in literal prescription than in dramatizing the level of focus and persistence required to outlast setbacks.