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On overnight success
Jan. 27th, 2026 11:03 amScott D. Clary writes in Facebook -- https://www.facebook.com/scottdclarypage/posts/pfbid037DSegV7EtPfArPmco5zMKVju2KSX69zTPMGr6NK8Wkf853tdXdFq3G7HKnWRu3Q4l :
Obsession + skill + 5 years = overnight success
Everyone sees the result. Nobody sees the 1,825 days before it.
***
Well, I have the obsession and the skill, and I have been working hard for almost 20 years already (counting since the second half of October 2006).
I cannot even say that I never noticed any overnight success. It was impossible not to notice it in Moscow in December 2011. Luckily I was able to leave Moscow for good in Spring 2014.
Since then, I am not interested in having any success during my lifetime anymore. All I want is reasonably good working conditions. But I am doing mathematics, not business. And I do not live in the U.S., the country of success.
Obsession + skill + 5 years = overnight success
Everyone sees the result. Nobody sees the 1,825 days before it.
***
Well, I have the obsession and the skill, and I have been working hard for almost 20 years already (counting since the second half of October 2006).
I cannot even say that I never noticed any overnight success. It was impossible not to notice it in Moscow in December 2011. Luckily I was able to leave Moscow for good in Spring 2014.
Since then, I am not interested in having any success during my lifetime anymore. All I want is reasonably good working conditions. But I am doing mathematics, not business. And I do not live in the U.S., the country of success.
