Even the best actors can't be successful all the time. Although plenty of success is based on talent, many actors credit luck as the primary reason for their victories. There's a lot to be said for being in the right place at the right time.

Despite enjoying an incredibly successful career in his adolescence, Ron Howard confessed that there was a period of time in his teens when he found himself jobless and scared. As a young man, Howard won over audiences with characters like Opie Taylor of The Andy Griffith Show and Richie Cunningham in Happy Days.

But in an interview with the Scripps Howard News Service, the opportunities stalled as Howard ages. Was it possible that his career had peaked in childhood?

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"There was a low time when I wasn't working," said Howard. "I was 16."

"But it was good because I had taken the business for granted," said Howard.

Instead of allowing this to defeat him, Howard took this spot of bad luck as a learning experience. He explained that it invigorated his love for entertainment. To lose it was to realize how much he needed it.

"I almost always got the job when I went up for an interview," Howard said of his earlier career. "And I think, during the dry spell, I realized I loved it. I wanted to do it."

The experience also cemented Howard's desire to move behind the camera, putting him in the driver's seat of his own life.

"That's also when I made up my mind I wanted to be a director because I felt that directors have a little more control over their destinies," said Howard.