I dropped a quick thought on Bluesky recently that’s been sitting on my mind ever since: Persistence is stubbornness with a nice haircut.

It’s wild how a slightly more agreeable angle is the only real defining factor between being called "hardheaded" or "dedicated."

When you’re out here banging your head against the wall in the early stages of a project, the world labels you as stubborn, unreasonable, or delusional. But the moment that exact same hardheadedness leads to an actual breakthrough? Suddenly, the narrative flips overnight. Now you’re "persistent." Now you’re "focused."

More often than not, stubbornness is the literal precursor to every major breakthrough.

The catch is that you cannot count on a single soul to support you during that initial grind.

People don't want to stand in the trenches with you while you're figuring out the mechanics, wrestling with the code, or polishing the raw takes. That phase looks messy, and most folks are too uncomfortable with uncertainty to back something that doesn't have a guaranteed outcome.

Everyone likes to wait until the wins have already been finalized. Then they show up right on schedule to deliver their ritualistic performances.

They drop their little polite applause, pretend they "always saw the vision," and act like they were part of the journey all along. It’s the ultimate bandwagon behavior, and it’s why seeking validation early on is a sucker's game.

If you’re waiting on a crowd to cheer you on before you put in the work, you’re never going to build anything that lasts. You have to embrace being the "stubborn" one first. Let them call it unreasonable until the results force them to call it genius.