What if the thing standing between you and success is not a lack of talent, money or opportunity- but your willingness to be comfortable? More than a decade ago, Shah Rukh Khan offered an unusually blunt answer to that question. What he said back then still remains relevant. The actor, who had already become one of Bollywood’s biggest stars by then, said success required a person to give up comfort, sacrifice the things they enjoy and remain restless.In a 2013 interview, Khan was asked about success, he did not talk about finding peace, maintaining balance or enjoying the journey. Instead, he joked that those who wanted to succeed had to give up some of the comforts that make life easier. “You cannot be restful and at peace if you want to be successful,” he said.
28 Jul 2026 | 16:25
Do you think social media has changed the parent-teen relationship?
‘I like to play video games and be with my children’
The superstar once said he loved family time, books and video games- but chose work and ambition over comfort.
What makes Khan’s argument particularly interesting is that he did not claim to be someone who naturally enjoys working all the time. He described himself as lazy. He said he liked playing video games, spending time with his children, writing poems, reading books and relaxing.Khan said that wanting those things did not mean he could always choose them. He gave his own routine as an example: he said he slept for only around four to five hours, got up in the morning and went to work. If he wanted to build six-pack abs, he would work out too- despite admitting that he hated doing it. The point was simple: you do not have to enjoy every sacrifice you make for a goal. Sometimes, the sacrifice is precisely the thing you would rather avoid.
His three-part formula: sacrifice, discomfort and restlessness
Shah Rukh Khan’s comments essentially boiled down to three ideas. The first was that success demands giving up comfort. The second was sacrifice. He said that if a person does not know how to sacrifice, they cannot become what they want to be. And the third was perhaps the hardest to hear: there will be pain.He spoke about sadness, suffering, stress and difficult periods as unavoidable parts of the journey. His argument was that discomfort may be temporary, but the opportunity to achieve something may not wait. “The pain will go away. Success doesn’t wait,” he said. For Khan, therefore, the question was not whether ambition would hurt. It was whether a person was willing to continue despite it.
‘I feel jealous of people who relax and rest’
More than a decade later, Shah Rukh Khan’s candid take on success continues to spark conversations about ambition and sacrifice.
But the most revealing part of his philosophy came when he admitted that he actually envied people who could switch off. “I feel envious of people who relax and rest,” Khan said. He also said he felt jealous of people who did not want to be successful.It sounds strange coming from someone who had already achieved the kind of fame most actors spend their entire careers chasing. Yet perhaps that is exactly what made the comment memorable.For Khan, success was not a destination at which one could finally relax. It was a state of constant dissatisfaction- the feeling that there was still something bigger to achieve. “Success will not come unless you are completely restless,” he said.
