I worked half my life to be an overnight success, and still it took me by surprise.

My dad told me, 'It takes fifteen years to be an overnight success', and it took me seventeen and a half years.

There's no such thing as an overnight success. It took me a long to get there.

Actually, I'm an overnight success, but it took twenty years.

I'm what is known as a 40-year overnight success.

Things that look like an 'overnight success' typically are not.