My analogy on growth

Think of Yourself as a Butterfly:

Before the flight a butterfly has to be an egg; little, insignificant, not so much of a big deal, literally nothing.

Then you make a little painful transition as a caterpillar; not attractive to many, unpleasant, slow or even unwanted, underrated, misunderstood.

As a pupa you get to understand yourself and go on a journey of self discovery, you become more reserved, studying, getting to know what is what and who's who (people have shown you who they are by the way they treated you so you're out to get yours and not rely on them).
This is where character is built, where you unlearn some knowledge, rewrite a few goals, change a lot of norms and stick to principles. You now barely give two ears to what people say, think or assume about you because a whole lot of them do that a lot; assume.
This is where a lot of people come with the famous dumb line; "You've changed!" Of cause I have, duh!
They prefer you being unattractive, slow, stagnant, not so much of a big deal.
But don't forget, they're gonna belittle you here as well, because they don't know what you're all about, some go further by telling lies about you because you stopped giving them insight to your life; When the hate don't work they start telling lies.

And then the Butterfly; your true identity revealed.
Moment when you're unstoppable, the breakthrough, your announcement, the miracle, the 'IT' moment.
The moment when success decides to show you off and all of a sudden you're beautiful to all, colorful and gracious in all measure, all angles, in all directions they wanna look at, the view suddenly becomes clearer now; everybody knows the view is better when you're in flight.
Now they no longer can reach you, you're way up here, they're way down there. You can't even recognize them no more, can't tell who's who because they're too small. The post is well illustrated, straight and simple.

Growth is not a mystery; it's obvious.