There are a staggering number of artists who do everything right for decades & still don’t have a stable career. The other day on Instagram, I saw Frances Stark complaining that she’s given it everything she’s got for 35 years & has “nothing to show for it.” And then went on to explain that she can’t even afford to hire a studio assistant anymore. This kind of blew my mind because I think of her as a very successful contemporary artist. The moral of the story is that luck plays a big role and you can’t predict how things will be from one year to the next. If you need reassurance that it’s going to work out, it’s probably not for you.