Reflecting back on meme stock mania it’s clear that it was the breakout moment for FinTech darling Robinhood. Even after all their success to date this was different. They had 3M app downloads in January alone! Yet lost in the criticism of how they handled trading restrictions, the tense testimony on Capitol Hill, and all the rest of the noise is the reality that their breakout moment almost broke them. That’s the thing about breakout moments.

Henry David Thoreau one said “you cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.” Again, that’s the thing about breakout moments. The dream might be the narrative, the media portrayal or the glitz. The reality is there is actual hammering and forging going on at the personal level in an effort to just…make it to the other side.

If you’re reading this you might be a character in one of these funny little venture experiments. The kind where you gather up a bunch of smart people, millions of dollars, ambitious milestones and compressed timelines into a pot and stir it all up. Breakouts happen! Breakdowns too. A whole lot more in between.

Apple TV just released a new documentary on the teen pop phenom Billie Eilish called The World’s A Little Blurry. Her story is pretty amazing. Fame came to her doorstep SO fast. Literally her doorstep. She wrote and produced most of her songs at her house with her brother. Billie still lives at that house with her parents since she’s only 19 too. Her startup garage, if you will. There are many parallels to hyper growth startups. Her white hot breakout moment almost breaks her too.

Without revealing too many spoilers, during one performance she turns her ankle on stage and almost has to end the concert. Her trainer wasn’t even on site to help because they were touring internationally. After another show she’s bombarded by a poorly designed meet & greet. She and her team are still figuring out how to scale their process. Her dad remarks in one scene that she went from 1M to 13M Instagram followers in a year. Woah. Today at the time of this writing? She has 77M followers! You want to talk about scale? That would be the population of the 20th biggest country in the world. Holy shit.

In our world breakout moments more traditionally come at a company level. But they have very real personal effects. Maybe you become an industry figure or a minor celebrity within a specific company’s walls. You’ll experience joys…and slights too. Coming through the other side is really the victory. The personal growth, not the hyper growth, is the journey.

Whether it’s Robinhood, Billie Eilish, or your hyper growth rocket ship experiencing breakouts is not natural. Exponential growth isn’t even human! It’s a function of these crazy systems we’ve built and unleashed that accrue attention, dollars, and power to unprepared winners.

Give yourself a break and embrace the unnatural forces around you. Just keep going. Billie can’t even get in to a bar yet. You’ll come through!