Most great ideas start out messy and unpolished. The creative process requires time, diligence, and a willingness to refine those early drafts until brilliance emerges. Here’s why embracing the struggle is key to crafting something truly exceptional.

Every great idea starts somewhere, and more often than not, that somewhere is a pretty rough place. Think about your favorite book, campaign, product, film, song, or piece of content—chances are, it didn’t emerge fully formed. There’s a reason why Ernest Hemingway famously said, “The first draft of anything is shit.” He knew that no matter how accomplished you are, the beginning is usually ugly, messy, and imperfect.

The initial excitement of an idea is often followed by the sobering reality that it’s not yet good. But here’s the thing—no idea is born brilliant. It takes time, persistence, and a willingness to wade through those awkward, unpolished early stages to uncover the potential buried within. What matters is not whether an idea is perfect from the start but rather the willingness to keep working at it, even when it seems like it’s not going anywhere.

The Importance of Starting Rough

Many people give up too soon. They believe that if an idea isn’t perfect straight away, it must not be worth pursuing. Or worse, they don’t put in the time it takes to mold a mediocre concept into greatness. The reality is that most ideas are like unpolished stones—you need to spend time chipping away at the rough edges before they reveal their value.

Consider Paul McCartney’s experience with Yesterday, one of the most famous songs in history. The melody came to him in a dream while he was staying in a small flat in London. He woke up with the tune fully formed in his head but wasn’t sure if he had unconsciously borrowed it from somewhere. For weeks, he played the melody to friends, asking, “Have you heard this before?” Only after confirming that it was original did he begin writing the lyrics. Initially, he filled in the gaps with placeholder words, humorously calling it “Scrambled Eggs.” It took time and patience to turn that rough dream into a song that would become one of the most covered tracks of all time. Even for a musical genius like McCartney, the path from dream to polished tune wasn’t instant.

This only goes to show that even if an idea starts small or rough, it can evolve into something far greater. The important thing is to stick with it, to keep refining, and to trust that the process will lead somewhere.

When Small Ideas Grow into Big Ones

“Mighty oaks from little acorns grow” goes the 14th century proverb. Sometimes, an idea starts out small, but the act of pursuing it can reveal far more potential than initially imagined.

Consider the development of Pinterest. It started as an app called Tote, which was intended to be a mobile shopping platform. Only when users started saving and sharing visual collections were the founders inspired to pivot to focus on image curation, evolving into what Pinterest is today. By sticking with it and continually refining the product, Pinterest evolved into a global platform for inspiration, used by millions for everything from wedding planning to home renovation ideas.

Slack, a widely used team communication platform, began as an internal tool for a failed gaming project. Originally designed to aid communication within the team, the tool itself became the main product after realizing its broader potential, transforming into the go-to collaboration tool for many companies around the world.

I’ve experienced this phenomenon firsthand when I had the idea to write a few food recipes for a vodka brand as part of a marketing effort. What began as a simple promotional effort turned into a deeper exploration of culinary uses for vodka. After months of developing more recipes and refining the concept, it evolved into the award-winning and best-selling The Vodka Cookbook, which was published in multiple languages. The initial idea wasn’t to create a cookbook; it was only through persistence that I discovered the bigger opportunity.

This kind of evolution is common in the creative process. What starts as a side project or a small piece of a campaign can become something much larger if you’re willing to explore its potential. It’s about staying open to where the process might lead you, even if that path wasn’t what you originally envisioned.

Embracing the Process, Not Just the Outcome

The value of an idea often lies in the process it inspires, even if the end result is completely different from what you imagined. The pursuit of greatness, sometimes in the face of adversity, is the hallmark of a professional creative process.

Dyson, known for its innovative vacuum cleaners and air purifiers, was founded by Sir James Dyson, who built over 5,000 prototypes before creating a successful bagless vacuum. This persistence in refining an initial idea, despite repeated failure, led to a breakthrough product that revolutionized the industry.

Supercell, the mobile gaming company behind hits like Clash of Clans, encourages employees to bring even half-formed ideas to the table. Through extensive feedback loops, they rework and improve games iteratively, sometimes discarding or reshaping games before they reach the public.

At Rose we inspire our people to focus on how to make an idea work, vs why it may not. This “workshopping” process may sometime lead to an entirely different idea. But it nearly always leads somewhere interesting.

When Pixar was developing Toy Story 2 it faced significant challenges, including story issues and even the accidental deletion of nearly the entire movie during production. This led Pixar to restart, re-edit, and overhaul the storyline. Ultimately, their persistence transformed Toy Story 2 into a critical and commercial success.

This adherence to the process is often the key to unlocking new directions. A rough draft can lead to an idea that’s ultimately set aside, but in the process of working through it, a new and better idea can emerge.

Burbn was a check-in app. But the initial concept was overly complicated, with many features that didn’t connect with users. The founders, however, didn’t discard the entire idea. After realizing that users engaged more with photo-sharing features, the founders pivoted, simplified the app, and rebranded it as Instagram. This iterative process of simplifying and honing in on what users really loved eventually led to one of the most successful social media platforms of all time.

Diligence as the Key to Creativity

Diligence is often seen as the unglamorous part of creativity, but it’s where the real magic happens. It’s about showing up every day, even when the ideas seem weak, and pushing through the resistance to polish them into something better.

When author Stephen King talks about writing, he emphasizes the importance of daily discipline. He writes every day, not because every word is gold, but because he knows that consistency is what allows the ideas to flow. He’s written countless drafts that he later discarded, but the persistence in showing up is what allowed him to craft classics like The Shining and It. King’s success isn’t just about talent—it’s about sticking with his work through the uninspiring drafts until something great emerges.

In the tech world, Twitter began as a platform called Odeo, a podcasting service that struggled to gain traction. Instead of giving up when the original idea faltered, the team experimented with side projects, eventually landing on a microblogging concept. That side project became Twitter. It’s an example of how sticking with the process—even when it seems like it’s not working—can lead to breakthroughs that are completely different from the original concept.

Final Words

The path to brilliance is rarely straightforward. It’s easy to see a final product and assume it came out perfectly on the first try, but behind every success story are countless hours of tweaking, reworking, and refining. Whether you’re creating a song, launching a new product, or crafting a novel, the same principle applies: Start somewhere, accept that the first version will be flawed, and work tirelessly to improve it.

For those willing to embrace the messy middle, the rewards can be immense. The important thing is to keep pushing forward, because the next version could be the one that finally hits the mark.