In 1871 he left the orchestra so that he could spend more time composing. For several years he still had to teach in order to earn enough money to live. He wrote a cantata "The heirs of the White Mountain" which was a great success. In 1874 he wrote an opera "King and Charcoal Burner", but the opera house did not want it. This made Dvořák realize that he had to be more self-critical. He destroyed a lot of his compositions which he thought were not his best works. He decided he must not compose like Wagner, but that he needed to find his own style of composing.