There's a quiet difference between wanting to do good work and wanting to be told you're doing good work. Most people would say they want the first. Over time, their choices often reveal the second.
You can spot it in how someone handles a hard truth about their own work. The person chasing excellence hears it and gets curious, wondering what it would take to close the gap. The person chasing recognition hears the same thing and starts building a case for why it doesn't count: the timing was wrong, the audience didn't get it, the standard itself was unfair. The explanation feels protective in the moment. It's actually the thing standing between them and the next version of themselves.
Excuses and growth can't really coexist. Every reason offered for why something fell short is a little bit of attention that didn't go toward making it better. And growth doesn't care how reasonable the excuse sounds. It only responds to the unglamorous stuff: showing up, being bad at something for a while, trying again.
None of this is really about talent. It's about which question someone is quietly trying to answer: "Am I good?" or "Am I seen as good?" The first one keeps you moving. The second one, if you let it, will keep you exactly where you are.
I try to stay on the first side of that line. I'm always learning, and I'd rather hear the honest, constructive version of where I'm falling short than the comfortable version that leaves me standing still. Growth isn't something I expect to finish. It's a lifelong endeavor, and I'm still very much in the middle of it.