When I paint, I often lay down the paint and step back. What I see often looks nothing like my vision for the painting. Depending on the medium — I love soft pastels and watercolors — there’s a point where it looks like a mess before it comes together.

Business is the same. The messy middle is real. It’s the stage between starting something and seeing it work — where doubt creeps in, where the feedback is hard, where nothing looks like you imagined. The artists and entrepreneurs who push through the messy middle are the ones who get to see what they were building all along. Love the mess. It means you’re in the process.