Giving up?

There was a great piece on NPR about students in the United States versus other countries. They took a sample group of high school students from the US and various other countries around the world and gave them an unsolvable math problem. 

The American students on average lasted 30 seconds before giving up. 

On the other end of the spectrum, after 2 hours, every Japanese student in the sample was still trying to solve the problem. 

What does this mean? 

My thoughts on the American education system aside, I think this is really important as regards our work as artists.

We forget the struggle. We forget that the struggle, the journey, the process is the best part. THAT is where the reward comes from. 

The industry constantly pushes us to place our value or self-worth, our energy on the end goal, the Oscar, the series, the money, but how critically important is it to not lose sight of the joy that comes from the process, and the struggle.