We can dedicate our lives to a specific thing in our life for years before we start to see the kind of results that we wish to see; growing a business, becoming an expert in one's field, transforming your mind and your body…the list goes on and on.

Nobody but you knows about the sleepless nights required to get where you're at.

Nobody but you knows about how many times you said "no, thanks" to going out with friends so that you could stay in and focus on you.

Nobody but you knows about the countless vacations that you shunned away because you knew that they act as long-term setbacks in exchange for some short-term and immediate gratification.

Nobody but you knows about the amount of financial and social debt that you accrued in order to live your dreams.

Nobody knows about all of the "behind the scenes" work that you do and all the details that go into fine-tuning your passion into exceptional execution.

Then one day, you "make it". 

Know that when you "make it" you will be judged for the you right there in that moment.  When others get a glimpse into your success whether that be through a picture that you post, running into you out in public and catching up through conversation, or hearing about your success through the grapevine, very few will know why you are having the levels of success that you're having and even fewer will be able to stop and say to themselves "man, that person must have put in a lot of work and sacrificed a lot to get to that point."

We as a society have done a better job of expressing empathy toward those who struggle (as we should), but from what I see, we still struggle expressing admiration for those who are successful as we assume they must have had a broad stroke of good luck, inheritance of some sort, or that they must have cheated their way to their success when in fact, I'd say that in most cases it's simply qualities like resilience, vision, commitment, and sacrifice executed over a long period of time that resulted in their success. 

"All overnight success takes about 10 years" - Jeff Bezos