Small comfort?

A quote I am trying to keep in mind, as I approach a milestone in my career and my life spirals into an endless succession of application after application:

"Successful scientists are generally recognised at a young age. They go to the best schools on scholarships, recieve their postdoctoral training fellowships at prestigious laboratories, and publish early. None of that happened to me."
~Julius Axelrod (winner of a Nobel Prize in 1970 for his work on nerve cell communication)

(Note: This is NOT implying that I am unhappy with any schools or programs that I have attended/applied to so far, I definitely don't feel like I've had to "settle" for anything inferior, but the statement still gives hope that even if I do mess something up, all may not be lost in the end...)