He performed throughout his long life one imposture after another, and once he had achieved a solid imposturous creation, he quit and left it alone.
The first president of independent Algeria, Ahmed Ben Bella, who has died aged 95, did not remain long in office once he had achieved success in his fight against colonialism.
Once he had achieved all he could hope to as a singer, he retired from performing in 1976 at the relatively early age of 52 and returned to teaching, now keen to pass on his expertise to students, both as a professor at the Royal Academy of Music and as a freelance coach.
Once he had achieved the record on 3 September 1935 at the Bonneville Speedway, Campbell retired from further land speed endeavours.
He could not convert, and so, once again, failed to make it to the fourth round in a Grand Slam event, a feat he has achieved only once, at the 2011 United States Open.
What might he have achieved, once he had learned to discipline his own melodramatic eloquence?
Pettitte came into tonight's game needing one victory to reach 20 for the season, a mark he had achieved once in his career, and he struck out the first two batters he faced, his fastball crackling, moving, fooling.
And in truth, once the ceremony was over, he had achieved his primary objective of drawing attention to his company and to the new flat-disc records it was promoting to compete with the better-known cylinders.
The World Cup triumph was the culmination of years of effort, but what happens to achievers, once they have achieved?
