Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it.... Success is shy — it won't come out while you're watching.

The remark frames success as an indirect byproduct rather than a goal that can be seized through sheer fixation. By likening success to something “shy,” Williams suggests that self-conscious striving—constant monitoring, strategizing, and measuring—can inhibit the spontaneity, risk, and absorption in craft that make achievement possible. The idea aligns with an artist’s experience: the best work often comes when attention is on the work itself (character, language, rehearsal, revision), not on reputation or outcomes. It also implies a psychological truth: anxiety about results can tighten performance and narrow imagination, whereas sustained practice and engagement allow recognition to arrive almost incidentally.