Excellence comes down to what you do before the applause.

What's more counterintuitive than putting something out into the world and hearing nothing?

Silence, only crickets as a response, and then smiling to yourself as you depersonalize that underwhelming outcome and start planning

your next masterpiece.

Because I'll tell you, it's a special kind of hell.

Or at least it feels that way.

It may actually be closer to a purgatory of sorts.

A toll that must be paid.

A fee that's required.

Since childhood, we're taught to see action and outcome

is this immediate cause and effect relationship.

I don't know about you, but very rarely did I hear,

congrats, you just watered the seed that will bear fruit in six years.

No one says, be patient.

Greatness must compound, and you just took a small step forward.

No, it's more subtle than that.

A long game.

A commitment to evolution over time.

Can't be purchased.

Must be earned.

And the road through the dark, murky forest to validation,

well, it's a demanding one.

...