I was reminded of this quote when @NickValdovinos was sharing his story.
“It's quite funny how for the first few years, bamboo grows so slowly you might think it's died. While all the other plants sprout and grow and flower, and even bear fruit, the bamboo remains almost completely underground, humble and unremarkable. But all those years it spends in the ground aren't wasted... While the other plants grow upward, the bamboo spreads its roots deep and wide in the soil, until one day, the roots have all grown. Then the bamboo shoots upward faster than anyone could have imagined.” — You Yeong-Gwang, The Rainfall Market