Many at times we are always distracted by a lot of things on our way to success in that particular thing we do, for instance, "I started this same business two years before he started, see where he has gotten now, I haven't achieved up to half of the profits he has made". It hurts sincerely, but still not the time to get discouraged.
If you are not a Christian, I am sorry, but James chapter one verse four (James 1vs4) even backed up my point, it says "NIV: let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything".
When we have done a whole lot and still have no evidence of hard work, it's is not the time to get discouraged, persevere. At times, we may be missing out on something.
This has nothing to do with the years you have spent doing that business, rendering that same skill or whatever you are very good at. You can spend years doing same thing with no result, it might just be a little thing you need to adjust and then you see a turnaround, it's still not your fault, you don't know.
My dad is a photographer, at times, he uses his story to encourage us. He said when he started photography, things were very hard for him, he couldn't even afford a camera and if he managed to get a gig, he was always borrowing his friends camera and that's if his friend didn't secure any gig to be done on that particular day.
It's so unfair to start praying for his friend not to get jobs, so he depended on luck😂😂 once he got a new gig, he would run to his friend, "please help me😩" and then he waits for his luck to work out the rest, either he has a job that same day or otherwise"
My dad started photography years before his friend started but running to him didn't discourage him, he pressed harder, even took advise from him, in case he has been doing something different that he's missing out on.
He continued striving without being discouraged till one day a big opportunity hit his preparation. He said he got a gig that changed his story, the gig was bigger than any of the gigs his friend had, the gig was rare and one of a kind, he got himself a brand new camera and sorted out some bills.
Imagine he had gotten discouraged? Or he didn't persevere? We don't quit till we hit our desired goal, we only remain stagnant when we quit. Persevere! You only learn and mature, we can achieve anything if we decide to persevere.