Going viral lasts a weekend. Being decent to people lasts a career.

Brief visibility is exciting and it does not compound. Being reliably decent accumulates instead, in the form of people who will vouch for you, work with you again, and pick up when you call. That network builds so gradually it never feels like progress while it is happening. Then it turns out to be most of what decides where you end up.

Treat each interaction as something that might matter in five years, because some of them will. Be the same person to people who cannot help you. Let attention come and go without reorganising yourself around it.