If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.

The saying frames “success” not as conformity to established formulas but as the willingness to innovate—choosing untested routes where others have not yet competed. It implies that widely accepted models of achievement become crowded and self-reinforcing, so merely copying them yields diminishing returns. The quote also carries a moral about agency: progress comes from initiative, experimentation, and tolerating uncertainty rather than seeking validation from precedent. In a business context, it valorizes entrepreneurship and strategic differentiation; in a personal context, it encourages independent judgment over social imitation. Its enduring appeal lies in its simple contrast between originality and convention as competing paths to accomplishment.