A scientist tested a new treatment for a stubborn disease. Experiment after experiment failed for years. Colleagues laughed and moved on to easier projects. Funding dried up. She continued in a small lab, tweaking one variable at a time. Decades passed. One trial finally succeeded. The treatment saved countless lives. The same people who mocked her now celebrated her βovernight success.β
Lesson: Breakthroughs in medicine, like in life, are usually the visible tip of years of unseen, doubted labor.