Exactly what the title says. Take any (okay, most) of the greats, and you’ll notice the pattern.

And not just “on the come up”. Once they were in full swing of their prime.

Athletes are overdone, so I’ll look at the artists:

  • Van Gogh, mental breakdown and hospital stay. During and after, produced his most well-known paintings, including Starry Night.
  • Matisse, intestinal cancer. After this, he created what are known as the best works of his career.
  • Cole Porter, ridding accident. After this, he produced many famous Broadway plays, including Kiss Me, Kate.
  • Adele, repeated vocal-cord hemorrhages, requiring tour cancelation and surgery. Still an incredible singer after.
  • Ernest Hemingway, World War I wounds (1918) happened before the great novels.
  • Stephen King, hit by a van in 1999. He later described the first session back as feeling like he had never written before. On Writing and the Dark Tower series (made into a movie) came out of that recovery.

The point isn’t that artists (or athletes) are cursed to have injuries.

And I’m not proferring platitudes about bouncing back.

Rather, here’s something more prosaic and mundane:

Accidents and setbacks happen; they are a part of life.

The greats just get back to work.