(With inspiration from Seth Godin)
We love the idea of the big break. The overnight success. The moment when everything changes, when the stars align, and the universe hands us the opportunity we’ve been waiting for. It’s clean. It’s dramatic. It’s a great story to tell.
But it’s mostly a myth.
Success isn’t one seismic moment. It’s a series of small, almost imperceptible shifts. A connection made at a meeting that leads to an introduction. A side project that catches the right person’s attention. A single post that starts a conversation. These moments aren’t as flashy as a life-changing break, but they add up.
The Work Before the Work
Before the moment that looks like a big break, there’s the work. The emails sent. The practice runs. The drafts no one sees. The failures. The disappointments. The small wins that build resilience, skill, and reputation. These are the little breaks, and they matter more than the ones that make headlines.
A well-timed opportunity means nothing if you haven’t done the work before the work. And that work is almost always invisible until it isn’t.
Are You Noticing the Small Doors?
Most people aren’t ignoring opportunity; they’re just looking for the wrong kind. They’re looking for a grand entrance when, more often than not, progress comes through a side door. A casual conversation. A favor returned. A half-finished idea that someone else sees potential in.
The people who seem to get ‘lucky’ are usually the ones paying attention to these small doors. They don’t wait for the perfect scenario; they take the imperfect ones and make something from them. They don’t hesitate because an opportunity isn’t wrapped in the packaging they expected.
Building Instead of Waiting
Big breaks feel like winning the lottery. Little breaks feel like compounding interest. You don’t notice much change at first, but over time, the accumulation is undeniable.
So what happens when you stop waiting for the big one?
You start acting on the small ones. You refine your skills in ways that make the next small break matter more. You shift from a passive participant to an active creator of opportunity.
Because here’s the thing:
Big breaks don’t create you. They reveal you. And who you are is built in the thousands of little breaks along the way.
