Some players are quiet for three quarters and dangerous in the fourth. Don’t count yourself out at the half.

Contribution does not have to be evenly distributed to be real. Some people warm slowly, read the situation first, and become most useful late, and judging that pattern at the midpoint produces a completely wrong conclusion. Early quiet is not the same as being absent.

If you are slow to arrive in rooms, in jobs, in friendships, stop apologising for the shape of it and plan around it. Know that your first hour is reconnaissance. Do not let anyone, including yourself, close the file at halftime. Show up for the fourth quarter and let that be your evidence.