make (one’s) bones
v.— «Business, for Puzo’s characters, is almost everything. Vito Corleone “made his bones” (first killing) in cold blood for dollars.» —“Persuasive Picture of Crime’s World” by Geoffrey Wolff Washington Post-Times Herald Mar. 8, 1969. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Advice about college essays from the winner of a top prize for children’s literature: Kelly Barnhill encourages teens to write about experiences that are uniquely their own, from a point of view that is theirs and no one else’s. Plus, why do we say...
Nancy Gabriel from Ithaca, New York, recalls her father’s no-nonsense responses to minor injuries when she was a child: After making sure she was really all right, he’d say, It’s far enough from your heart; it won’t kill you. Other times he might...
This citation was previously misattributed to the New York Times but was corrected on July 5, 2017. Thanks to Merrill Perlman for the correction.