The illusion of overnight success

I recently listened to a documentary about the artist Charli XCX. It featured, among others, the Swedish songwriter, producer, and friend Noonie Bao, who’s been with her since the very beginning.

Noonie shared how happy and moved she feels seeing Charli’s success. Having witnessed all the hard work and dedication firsthand, she talked about how Charli stood her ground when others doubted her, always trusting her own intuition. As Noonie wisely put it:

It’s easy to think that this kind of success happens overnight, but it simply doesn’t.

So true, and so easily forgotten.

We often look at people who’ve “made it” and assume their success was handed to them. While timing and luck are often mentioned - and yes, they do play a part - the real foundation is usually relentless hard work and a whole lot of patience.

So when we feel like giving up, maybe we should pause and ask ourselves:

Have we really given it our all?

Not all projects need to be successful, of course. There’s great value in creating just for the pure joy of it, whether it’s the Zen of CSS or a good side project.

But if we do have ambitions to take it to the next level, then we really do need to ask ourselves:

Am I truly willing to invest what it actually takes?

If not, keep doing it for the grand gratification of creating. When all those “must succeed” thoughts are set aside, that kind of freedom can actually lead to success too. That’s the beautiful paradox of the creative world.

No matter what — continue creating.