Lots of people downplay the amount of preparation it takes to achieve something impressive.
I was first introduced to this idea by Ramit Sethi in this blog post: That behind every every impressive feat lies a HUGE amount of preparation. You only see the results, but you almost never hear about the hours and hours of grunt work:
Situation: Your friend lost 10kg in 3 months and looks amazing
He says: “Oh I just watched my diet and exercised more”
Reality: He ate chicken breast and steamed broccoli every day, hired a personal trainer, and worked out 5X a week
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Situation: Your colleague gave a game-changing idea during a meeting that impressed your boss
She says: “It was just something that popped into my head!”
Reality: She spent 2 hours of pre-reading through the background material, and the last 3 days interviewing stakeholders and researching potential vendors
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