Gradually Then Suddenly: A Guest Post by Mark Batterson

By Mark Batterson / November 7, 2025 at 12:01 am

Shining a reassuring light, the author of The Circle Maker offers a timely reminder that breakthroughs rarely happen by chance. Both faith and perseverance play a crucial role in cultivating success. Read on for an exclusive essay from Mark Batterson on writing Gradually Then Suddenly.

Hardcover $26.00

Gradually Then Suddenly: How to Dream Bigger, Decide Better, and Leave a Lasting Legacy

By Mark Batterson

In Stock Online

Hardcover $26.00

True success doesn’t happen overnight. The New York Times bestselling author of Win the Day reveals a life-changing truth about achievement: God is building you up steadily so you’re ready for overnight success.

“How did you go bankrupt?” That’s the question posed by Ernest Hemingway in his 1926 Novel, The Sun Also Rises. The rather infamous reply? “Two ways. Gradually and then suddenly.”

That’s how you go bankrupt, but that’s also how you get out of debt. That’s how you write a book, run a marathon, or earn a degree—and a thousand other things! That’s how entrepreneurs innovate, athletes win championships, and investors make bank. Reverse engineer any success story, and I daresay, it happened two ways—gradually then suddenly.

Rowdy Gaines won the gold medal in 100-meter freestyle at the 1984 Olympic games. When he added up all the laps he swam it totaled 20,000 miles. “I swam around the world,” said Gaines, “for a race that lasted forty-nine seconds.” All of us would love a gold medal, but very few of us are willing to put on a speedo, dive into a freezing cold pool, and swim laps at the crack of dawn day after day, year after year.

Over the course of his musical career, Pablo Casals put in more than 100,000 hours of practice. That’s 10x the 10,000 rule! That’s how he became “the greatest cellist to ever draw the bow.” No one gets a 20% discount on the 10,000 rule! There are no shortcuts and there are no cheat codes. Overnight success is an oxymoron. It takes blood, sweat, and tears—for many years!

In his classic book on baseball, The Boys of Summer, Roger Kahn described George “Shotgun” Shuba’s swing as being “as natural as a smile.” Shuba laughed when he read that description. Why? There is nothing “natural” about six hundred practice swings every single night. If someone makes something look effortless, I can almost guarantee they put more effort into it than anyone else. During his fourteen seasons in the minor and major league, Shuba took 700,000 practice swings!

Almost anyone can accomplish almost anything if they work at it long enough, hard enough, and smart enough. A black belt is a white belt that never quit. Regardless of what goal you’re going after, it’ll probably take longer than you like and be harder than you hoped for. So be it. When things don’t go your way, don’t play the victim. Play the long game! The goal of accomplishing a goal isn’t the goal—it’s who you become in the process! My advice? Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. But remember how it will happen—it’ll happen two ways—gradually then suddenly!