When someone younger asks how you did it, tell them the real version, including the parts you messed up.

Stories about how somebody got good tend to lose the mess on the way out: the year of being bad at it, the thing you quit and came back to, the help you were given. Leaving that out makes you sound impressive and makes the listener assume they must be doing it wrong. The messy version is more useful, and it is also true.

If somebody younger wants to know how you got there, include one failure with a date on it. Tell them how long the bad stretch lasted, which is the number they are really asking about. Then give them one thing you would do differently.