The person who is waiting for something to turn up might start with their shirt sleeves.

The remark is a brisk rebuke to passive optimism. “Waiting for something to turn up” evokes the hope that luck, opportunity, or rescue will arrive on its own; the suggested remedy—starting with one’s “shirt sleeves”—implies rolling them up and getting to work. The contrast frames success as something produced through effort rather than received through chance. It also carries a faintly humorous, plainspoken tone: instead of scanning the horizon for a break, begin with the immediate, practical step that signals readiness to act. As a maxim, it champions agency, industriousness, and self-reliance over wishful thinking.