In my 20s, I watched a lot of interviews with artists so I could understand how they found success. I believed I could reverse engineer these paths, and I appreciated this genre of media so much I started making my own by interviewing recording artists and authors.

While I learned more than my fair share, the main key was that there was no right way to do creative work. Each person had their own style, which expressed itself into a unique path. 

These paths may all have converged into similar points of success when I interviewed them, and they have deviated drastically since. But nobody followed a singular path too closely. “Trying to replicate someone else’s path is like entering their GPS coordinates without checking your own location first,” Laura Huang writes.

Walking your path certainly isn’t a walk in the park. Many parts of it will feel confusing, tiring, and doubtful. What keeps you going is momentum—each small win feels energizing, authentic, and clarifying—as well as the vision for what you build in the long run.

The ones who continued to gain success took things one step at a time, practicing constantly and showing up to the marketplace, and didn’t let themselves stop. It might not be easy, but it’s very simple.