Einstein is drawing a distinction that cuts against our grain—success is often about timing, connections, and luck, whereas value is something you actually control and build through your work. A surgeon who performs operations competently but without genuine care for her patients' recovery might achieve financial success and professional status, yet lack the value that would make her truly excellent at her calling. The profundity here is that chasing success often leads you away from the discipline and integrity required to become genuinely skilled; you end up optimizing for the wrong metrics, like visibility or accolades, rather than mastery. When you reverse the equation—becoming useful, knowledgeable, and honest first—success tends to arrive as a quiet consequence, if it matters at all.