Being Bad Longer Than Most People Can Tolerate

Almost no one talks about the part where you’re bad at something for a long time. Not awkward for a week. Not struggling for a month. I mean genuinely bad — uncoordinated, inefficient, unimpressive — while putting in real effort and getting very little in return. That stretch is where most people quit, not because they can’t improve, but because they can’t tolerate being bad without reward.

Every skill worth having demands a season of embarrassment. In sports, it’s missing shots, losing matches, and feeling slower than everyone else. In business, it’s working long hours with nothing to show for it, launching things that don’t work, making decisions that feel clumsy in hindsight. In any craft or profession, it’s being the least capable person in the room while still showing up day after day. That phase isn’t a sign you’re failing. It’s the price of entry.

The real question isn’t how talented you are. It’s how long you can stay in the uncomfortable phase without external reinforcement. How many times can you do the same thing with no praise, no visible progress, and no immediate payoff? How long can you train, practice, build, or study while the scoreboard refuses to move? That tolerance is what separates people who eventually get good from people who never do.

Most people don’t quit because they lack potential. They quit because the feedback loop is too slow. Humans are wired to respond to reward. We like validation, wins, and signs that we’re on the right track. When those signals don’t show up quickly, the mind starts negotiating. It tells you maybe this isn’t your thing, maybe you started too late, maybe you’re not built for it. Those thoughts aren’t truth. They’re discomfort trying to talk you out of the work.

Warriors understand something most people don’t: progress often happens without permission. It doesn’t ask you if you feel encouraged. It doesn’t reassure you along the way. It just accumulates quietly, beneath the surface, until one day the difference is undeniable. The people who make it through are not the most gifted. They are the ones who can endure long stretches of being bad without changing direction every time it feels uncomfortable.

There is a strange kind of discipline required to keep doing something when you’re not good at it yet. It requires humility. It requires patience. It requires detaching your ego from performance and anchoring it to effort instead. You stop asking, “Am I winning yet?” and start asking, “Did I show up again today?” That shift is everything.

If you’re in that phase right now — struggling, doubting, wondering if it’s worth it — you’re closer than you think. Not to success, but to competence. And competence comes before confidence every single time. No one skips that step. The people you admire simply stayed in it longer than most people could tolerate.

So don’t measure yourself by results alone. Measure yourself by repetition. By consistency. By your willingness to keep going when it feels pointless. Being bad for a long time isn’t a flaw in the process. It is the process.

And the warrior doesn’t leave the path just because the reward hasn’t shown up yet. He understands that mastery is paid for upfront — in effort, humility, and patience — and collected later.