The hardest part about trying something outside the box is that it’s only cool if it works.  When something works, you look like the visionary who took a risk and triumphed against the odds.  When it doesn’t, you’re the fool who wasted time on a silly pipedream.  Granted, in public you’ll have a fun story to tell.  But behind closed doors, people will see you as the clueless dreamer who thought he was special. 

Society will applaud a body of work only after it has resulted in success.  Until then, it sees only wasted time that could have been spent on more practical pursuits.  We love a feel good story about perseverance and someone’s refusal to quit.  However, we don’t appreciate that story unless it ends in success.   

The world wants things to come easy.  We assume the highly successful were all wunderkinds with undisputable natural talent.  We think that their careers were all forgone conclusions.  But that’s not reality.  Despite what you see in the media, child stars and rock prodigies are the exception.  For every teenage starlet, there are a thousand working actors who’ve clawed their way to success. Most professional musicians aren’t famous when they are 20.  There were years of making towns to play small gigs all in the hopes of making a living, much less making it “big”.  

Any famous comedian has endured years on the road, performing countless sets just for a chance to become a headliner.  It isn’t glamorous.  It’s a gut-wrenching grind that most swear they couldn’t stomach doing a second time.  The same holds true for most entrepreneurs and small business owners.  Their vision and business savvy is applauded when it works, but there were years of struggle and uncertainty when the outcome was still unknown.  

Yet, we don’t think about that when reading their story in the paper or when we see their special  on Netflix.  We don’t think about their grind when we hear them on Spotify or when we listen to their story on a podcast.  In those moments, it all sounds cool.  We hail them for enduring the hardships because they knew they had what it took.  But, the reality is, they didn’t know.  No one does.  They had to trust themselves and take giant leaps of faith.  Many were on the brink of quitting.  Many were told to give it up and to get a real job.  

Every person you see who has had a breakthrough of some kind had very recently been doubting whether their hard work would pay off.  In hindsight, they can all anecdotally recount the tough times and close calls before grinning over how it all worked out in the end.  But, they were never sure.  Many probably still aren’t.  They all have friends who are still trying to make it.  They all have contemporaries that they swear are better, smarter, and more talented, but who never caught their “big break”.  But yet, we don’t recognize those efforts, nor do we know their names, because we only think it’s cool if it works.  

No one cheers for the guy who spent a decade in the minors.  It’s only after he’s called up to the major leagues that we applaud his story.  No one claps for the working actor who is still waiting tables when he’s 32.  He’s the dreamer who needs a reality check.  But, everyone will ask for his autograph the next year when he lands a leading role.  Every singer in Nashville who gets signed after 10 years was also being mocked by her high school friends the year before.  But now, they all brag that they know her.  

The story of someone’s grind is only charming after the hard work has paid off.  That’s why we’re embarrassed to share our dreams.  We’re convinced the world will laugh at our ideas.   We’re nervous to talk about our side projects because of what the world will think of us if it doesn’t work.  We’re afraid to chase something outside the norm, so we think of every reason not to try.  

So, what about you? What do you want?  Do you want to achieve something? Or do you want to remain on the sidelines, forever commenting about the boldness other people exhibited in their lives?  

The people who succeed know that win or lose, the cool part is conquering your own fear and battling against the tough odds.  Every person who has achieved something great has faced the same self doubt that you are struggling with.  Every person who accomplished something big was scared it wasn’t going to happen.  The world will only think it’s cool if it works, but you’ll know the coolest part was that you tried.