From Seth Godin’s The Practice, this creator’s failure narrative:

• There is more supply than demand; therefore, most of the feedback is rejection. From the market, from the gatekeepers.
• The work is created with generally available tools. The group that believes they can do the same job or better is large.
• The fan base is transient, and the churn is significant.
• Negative criticism spreads easier than positive feedback.
• We work in novelty. There is always more novelty for our customers to turn to.
• We and our customers chase creative magic. By that standard, almost all of our efforts fail.

Then, successful creators have in their favor the benefit of the doubt and tribal cognitive dissonance.