That overnight success you saw was filmed over six years and edited to thirty seconds.

What reaches you is a highlight cut, and the cut removes exactly the part that would be useful. Years of unremarkable work do not survive editing, so the version you compare yourself against has a beginning and a result and no middle at all. Measuring your own slow, visible middle against that is a rigged comparison.

When a rise looks sudden, go looking for the timeline before you draw any conclusion about yourself. Ask how long the person had been at it before anyone was watching. Then judge your pace against your own start date.