"There are two essential epochs in any enterprise - to begin, and to get done"
About this Quote
Bailey’s line reads like a clean lab note, but it’s really an argument against the culture of endless preliminaries. “Two essential epochs” is a scientist’s framing: not a vague motivational poster, but a lifecycle with hard phases. The word “epochs” also sneaks in a reminder that projects don’t just take time; they create time, dividing your life into before and after.
The bite is in what he leaves out. He doesn’t dignify the middle with its own status. No epoch for planning, for perfecting, for “iterating,” for waiting until conditions are ideal. That omission is the subtext: the middle is where people hide. It’s where institutions launder indecision into process and where individuals convert fear of failure into research, meetings, and drafts that never have to face the world.
Context matters here. Bailey was a major force in horticulture and agricultural science, a world of seasons, experiments, and unromantic deadlines. Plants don’t negotiate with your calendar. You start when the work must start; you finish when it’s ready or when the window closes. In that environment, “get done” isn’t about artistry or perfection, it’s about consequences: crops harvested or lost, findings published or wasted, momentum kept or surrendered.
The quote’s intent is bracingly practical: treat finishing as an act equal in importance to initiating. Bailey isn’t celebrating hustle; he’s insisting on closure. In a culture that rewards announcement over delivery, his sentence is a quiet rebuke: beginnings are cheap, endings are the proof.
The bite is in what he leaves out. He doesn’t dignify the middle with its own status. No epoch for planning, for perfecting, for “iterating,” for waiting until conditions are ideal. That omission is the subtext: the middle is where people hide. It’s where institutions launder indecision into process and where individuals convert fear of failure into research, meetings, and drafts that never have to face the world.
Context matters here. Bailey was a major force in horticulture and agricultural science, a world of seasons, experiments, and unromantic deadlines. Plants don’t negotiate with your calendar. You start when the work must start; you finish when it’s ready or when the window closes. In that environment, “get done” isn’t about artistry or perfection, it’s about consequences: crops harvested or lost, findings published or wasted, momentum kept or surrendered.
The quote’s intent is bracingly practical: treat finishing as an act equal in importance to initiating. Bailey isn’t celebrating hustle; he’s insisting on closure. In a culture that rewards announcement over delivery, his sentence is a quiet rebuke: beginnings are cheap, endings are the proof.
Quote Details
| Topic | Motivational |
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