on the verge of
Almost at the beginning of.
He was finally on the verge of success.
Every time I thought he was on the verge of telling us, he decided to say something else instead.
You know, we all have our inner demons. I, for one - I can't speak for you, but I'm on the verge of moral collapse at any time. It can happen by the end of the show. Glenn Beck
Every poet has trembled on the verge of science. Henry David Thoreau
Though I was satisfied that I was on the verge of perhaps a magnificent find, probably one of the missing tombs that I had been seeking for many years, I was much puzzled by the smallness of the opening in comparison with those of other royal tombs in the valley. Howard Carter
[Even if the U. S. doesn't attack] Saddam Hussein is not going to survive. His regime is on the verge of implosion. Christopher Hitchens
America has become one of the foremost countries in regard to the depth of the abyss which lies between the handful of arrogant multimillionaires who wallow in filth and luxury, and the millions of working people who constantly live on the verge of pauperism. Vladimir Lenin
Happily, at forty-six I still feel as experimental and on the verge of getting at the truth as ever. Virginia Woolf