The phrase "elusive success" is correct and commonly used in written English.
It refers to something that is difficult to achieve or obtain. Example: Despite her persistent efforts, Mary found that success in the competitive industry was elusive.
And it looks like the elusive success with women's wear may be in sight.
Yet once in power himself, Brown tried hard to mimic everything Blair did, grasping after his elusive success.
To the Editor: Bringing new medicines to patients is a complex process fraught with setbacks, requiring years of research and billions of dollars to reach elusive success.
And yet, while wearing the yellow, green and blue of Brazil's national team, Neymar is also a reminder of elusive success, even in his absence.
She knows that a lot of women dream of a second career as a novelist, but is not bashful about how elusive success can be.
Mostly, he liked his humility, not hat-in-hand, eyes-cast-down humility, but a humility evolved from a sense of knowing firsthand what poverty was, and how fragile and elusive success can be.
Beyond that lies the question of how we've culturally reached a point when parents can embrace drugging preteens in the hope of finding elusive school success.
Sport was the arena in which Britain proved those famous lines from Kipling's "If" – even if failure was the imposter that tended to turn up far more frequently than his elusive twin, success.
O'Neill might have momentarily permitted himself the luxury of contemplating that elusive first success when his side went 2-0 up inside 20 minutes.
However, recovery of BTBR/Pas from cryopreserved sperm remains elusive, while success with B6 sperm has only recently been significantly improved (Takeo and Nakagata 2011) and confirmed in our group by K.J.K.
But she was finding success elusive.
