March 30, 2025 | #33 | read on The Happier Studio | Free Version
Welcome to The Happier Newsletter, a weekly newsletter where I provide actionable ideas to help you build a happier, healthier, and more meaningful life.
What’s On Today
- The Truth About Success No One Talks About
- Why You’ll Have to Endure Seasons of Loneliness
The Truth About Success No One Talks About
We admire successful people for what they’ve achieved, but rarely do we talk about what they had to endure to get there.
Success is often painted as a thrilling, rewarding, and fulfilling journey. And while it can be, the reality is much more complicated:
- It demands trade-offs.
- It requires discomfort.
- And, at times, it forces you into a season of loneliness.
People will tell you to “chase your dreams.” But they won’t always tell you about the sacrifices required to get there.
Most people want success. Few are willing to endure what success demands.
Here are three truths about success that most people don’t talk about.
1. You Will Outgrow People
Growth creates distance.
When you start evolving—changing your habits, raising your standards, focusing on something bigger than yourself—you may find that you no longer fit into the spaces you once did.
The people around you might not understand your ambition.
- They may laugh at your goals.
- They may question why you're “wasting time” on something uncertain.
- They may even tell you to “be realistic.”
And it will hurt.
It’s painful to feel like you’re drifting away from the people you once shared everything with. But here’s the truth: You can’t build a new future while clinging to an old identity.
This is why many people never reach their full potential—they are more afraid of losing connection than they are of losing themselves.
Growth requires letting go. Not in anger or resentment, but in acceptance that not everyone is meant to walk this journey with you.
The good news? As you grow, you will attract new people who align with your evolution. You just have to be willing to endure the space between.
2. No One Will Clap at First
In the beginning, your work will go unnoticed.
- You’ll write things no one reads.
- You’ll build things no one buys.
- You’ll show up every day with little to no validation.
This is where most people quit.
Not because they weren’t capable, but because they expected recognition too soon.
We live in a world of instant gratification, where we assume that if something doesn’t get immediate validation, it isn’t worth doing. But success isn’t instant—it’s built in the unseen hours, in the quiet consistency of showing up when no one is watching.
The people we admire today—authors, entrepreneurs, artists—weren’t always in the spotlight. They endured years of effort in obscurity before their work was recognized.
J.K. Rowling, Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey—none of them were applauded in the beginning. They simply kept going.
If you’re in that phase, don’t stop. The applause comes after the persistence, not before.
3. You Will Have to Walk Alone
When you start growing faster than your environment, you may feel isolated.
At first, it’s unsettling. You don’t fit in with the same conversations. Your old routines feel foreign. The people you once connected with seem distant.
It can feel like you’re losing more than you’re gaining.
But this loneliness? It’s not a sign of failure—it’s a sign of transformation.
Loneliness is the space between who you were and who you’re becoming.
Instead of fearing it, embrace it. Use it. Let it be a season of deep work, focus, and self-discovery.
Because on the other side of this season, you’ll find your people—the ones who truly align with the life you’re building.
Why You’ll Have to Endure Seasons of Loneliness
Every extraordinary person has gone through a season of solitude.
Take J.K. Rowling—before she became the world-famous author of Harry Potter, she endured one of the loneliest seasons of her life.
At 25, she was a single mother, living in a tiny apartment, struggling with depression, and relying on welfare checks to get by. She had no support system, no financial security, and no guarantee that her writing would ever amount to anything.
She spent hours in cafes, scribbling down the story of a boy wizard, pouring her dreams onto paper while the world around her barely noticed. She sent her manuscript to 12 publishers, and all of them rejected her. Some even told her that “children’s books don’t make money.”
Imagine what would have happened if she had listened to them.
Imagine if she had given up.
But she didn’t.
She endured the loneliness, the self-doubt, and the uncertainty. She kept writing, even when no one was reading. She kept believing in the story she wanted to tell.
Eventually, a small publishing house took a chance on her book, printing just 500 copies. That book became a global phenomenon. Today, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has sold over 500 million copies and changed the lives of millions.
Her story is proof that the lonely seasons—the ones where no one sees you, where your efforts go unnoticed, where doubt creeps in—are not the end of your journey.
They are the beginning.
