The person who survives the boring years may inherit the extraordinary result.

A surprising amount of extraordinary outcome goes to whoever was still there. Not the most talented or the most driven, simply the one who stayed through the years when nothing was happening and everyone else found something more interesting. Persistence is not sufficient, and it removes most of the competition.

If you are in a boring stretch of something worthwhile, understand what that stretch is doing. It is thinning the field, and your only job is to remain.