My experience is that perfection is nothing but an illusion... and I've been playing this gig called "life" for 57 years. We see things, and we see them as "perfect" and we strive for them... working, working, working... but no matter how hard we work and how much effort we put forth? It doesn't work... and here's the thing: When we do end up with that "thing" we thought would make everything perfect... it turns out to feel like a "hollow victory" because it really wasn't quite what we thought it would be. We don't "feel" it. And so we chase harder...
... and end up with blown out knees and stress fractures.
When I think about my life, often the "perfect moments" arose all by themselves, out of a situation I was busting my butt on. An awesome free trip to Vancouver arises because I am helping a friend with a software project. A business I was working on takes off... not because of my working harder, but because I happened to meet someone who thought it was the greatest thing. And so forth, and so on.
Good things often happen "indirectly."
And yes, it often takes much longer than expected. More often than not, great ideas don't fail because of poor execution, they fail because the instigator bailed out too soon.