I think people like to imagine that they are special, and that things should come more easily to them than they do to other people. And when inspiration, or beginner's luck, or that initial burst of energy wears off, they think they're no longer good at something because it has gotten more difficult. And if they were really as good as they thought, it would still be easy. I think they interpret that difficulty as a mark of failure. And especially with creative or nontraditional professions being undervalued as they are, there's a societal understanding that there's a point at which you should just give up at some point, and find a real job. Get a real life. Make a contribution, even if it's not the one you wanted to make. In a way, people are rewarded socially for quitting as soon as the going gets tough, because if they keep trying when they aren't at peak performance, people tell them they were kidding themselves to try at all.
We value hard work only when we can see the fruits of our labor, and those results are what we intended for them to be.. We have no respect for the process until we see the product. We won't subsidise education because the benefits aren't immediate. We tell people that you can accomplish anything through hard work, but mock them when hard work fails. So I think you're right. But I think it's a symptom of living in a world where we are constantly told that failure is unacceptable. Where innate characteristics like intelligence and creativity are valued over hard work. I