Reaching the top is only halfway. You still have to get down, and that’s where people get careless.

Finishing is the dangerous part. Attention holds while a thing is hard and then drops the moment it feels won, which is precisely when people stop checking, stop bracing and stop doing the careful small steps that got them up there. A lot of the damage in anything happens after the hard part rather than during it.

Watch yourself in the last ten percent. After the test is handed in, after the season is decided, after the offer comes, hold the same standard a little longer than feels necessary. The way down counts as part of the climb.