Week 0️⃣ 5️⃣

When we think about success, we often imagine smooth progress, confidence, and talent shining through from the very beginning. But in reality, many of the most creative breakthroughs in history were born not out of comfort, but out of frustration, struggle, and even destruction. Frustration is not simply an obstacle; it can be the raw material of greatness.

Take Michelangelo, for example. Today we celebrate the Sistine Chapel ceiling as one of the greatest achievements of Western art. But at the time, Michelangelo didn’t even want the job. He considered himself a sculptor, not a painter. He worked for years, lying on scaffolding with paint dripping into his eyes, his neck twisted in pain. He wrote in a letter that he felt tortured by the work. And yet, out of that discomfort came a masterpiece that still amazes the world five hundred years later.

Fast forward to modern times, and consider the story of Stardew Valley. Eric Barone, the game’s creator, worked completely alone on his project for four years. He was unemployed, isolated, and often felt like a failure. He rewrote huge parts of the game again and again, destroying his own work because he believed it wasn’t good enough. At times, the project seemed endless. But that persistence, through frustration, eventually produced one of the most beloved video games of all time, selling millions of copies and creating a devoted global community.

The architect Antoni Gaudí is another example. He spent decades designing and building the Sagrada Família in Barcelona. Many people mocked him during his lifetime, and the project moved so slowly that it seemed doomed. In 1926, Gaudí died suddenly after being hit by a tram — trapped, in a way, by the very modernity that surrounded him. Yet today, his unfinished church is one of the most famous buildings in the world, visited by millions every year, and still under construction almost a century later.

Even in smaller ways, destruction is a constant part of creation. Writers throw away drafts. Painters cover their canvases. Musicians delete entire recordings. And sometimes, as with Joshua Schachter’s “frustrating art machines,” mistakes themselves become the art. His plotter drawings went viral precisely because they failed in ways that made audiences laugh, shout, or even feel betrayed.

So what can we learn from these stories? Frustration does not mean the end of success. In fact, it is often the doorway into it. To create something meaningful, we may first need to destroy, undo, or fail. Creativity is not the absence of struggle. It is the ability to transform struggle into something lasting. And if you find yourself frustrated with your own work, remember: you might just be standing on the edge of your masterpiece.