Creative Success Really Does Come Down to Just These Two Things

The only things you need are persistence over time and patience.

Look, I get that we all define creative success in different ways. I define it almost exclusively on internal conditions: am I happy, satisfied, fulfilled by my creative activities? Do they feel meaningful not just to me but within the context of the wider world? If those conditions are met, I feel successful. Validation, money, etc. are just icing. Nice, but not necessary, and sometimes they even spoil the dessert (I don’t want brownies with icing, thanks very much).

Maybe you define it differently, and your way is totally valid if it’s working for you! But I bet regardless of your definition of success, one thing remains true: if you’re not actually doing your creative work and finishing projects, there is no success to be had.

This is where most people end up failing. Yes, most. For every person who finishes a novel and puts it out into the world, a hundred, and probably far more, have thought about writing a novel but didn’t, or made an outline but then never wrote it, or got through chapter four and abandoned the project, or even finished a rough first draft but then didn’t have the heart to dive into editing.

Sticking it out is the hardest part of creative success. And in fact it is the only truly necessary and sufficient ingredient. Talent is neither necessary nor sufficient, it’s really not. It helps, but what constitutes talent is relative and plenty of people of average talent succeed.

Let’s take a closer look at what’s involved in sticking it out. That “rule” about 10,000 hours of practice? The one that says you have to do something for that long to become an expert (whatever that means)? Toss that out the window. It can take a lifetime to amass that many hours, and not everyone has the capacity or desire to spend that much time on their art. Imagine spending 20 to 40 years getting your 10,000 hours (that’s spending between five to ten hours a week). Will you still want the same things at the end of that? Will you only then be ready to debut your precious art? That’s silly. Share your art now. It doesn’t matter if you’re an expert, it doesn’t matter if you ever are.

There is one thing that the 10,000 hours rule does get right, though: if you dedicate yourself to achieving your 10,000 hours, you will most certainly manage to not only do your work (obviously), but probably finish lots of stuff.

The truth is that you only need two qualities to be creatively successful: persistence over time and patience. We tend to overvalue the first, undervalue the second. We know that we need to keep at it, this is ingrained in us through our cultural myths. Think The Little Engine That Could, or Slow and Steady Wins the Race. What we often don’t understand, the thing we trip up on, is the colossal, unbelievable, and frankly insane amount of patience that is needed to be a successful creative.

How long do you think it will take to finish your project? Double that and add six months. And it still may take longer. Not all projects are like this, but many are. And if you seek long-term success as a creative, you must essentially have never-ending patience, because the work never ends. And it’s always work, always effortful (though it’s also joyful if you accept that it’s always effortful work and learn persistence and patience). This is what the creative life is. It’s doing your work, continuing to do so, and practicing the patience of one who has deeply absorbed the lesson that it’s all process and journey, never arrival and destination.

Do you have what it takes? There’s nothing wrong with you if you don’t. Maybe you prefer short-term gains, the feeling of progressive achievement, the world’s esteem. You may get those things from creative work, but if that is your aim, you will probably find yourself struggling to establish a creative practice that supports large projects. And that’s fine, because you should do what’s right for you. Just be clear on your own capacities and desires.

But if you do have what it takes, rest assured that truly the only things you need are persistence over time and patience. You can build these qualities into your creative practice, they can become what is sacred about it. You will find joy in your work, you will finish your projects, and you will see improvements in your skill over time. You will develop self-confidence and self-respect. And your success will take care of itself.