Personal relationships are the fertile soil from which all advancement, all success, all achievement in real life grows.

Stein’s line frames achievement as something that grows out of human connection rather than isolated talent or sheer effort. By calling relationships “fertile soil,” he suggests that trust, goodwill, mentorship, and mutual obligation provide the conditions in which opportunities and accomplishments can take root. The emphasis is not merely on networking as transaction, but on sustained personal bonds that generate collaboration, information, and support over time. The quote also implies a critique of purely individualistic accounts of success: in “real life,” progress is social, dependent on communities and the reputations we build within them.