Coelho captures something counterintuitive here: enthusiasm isn't a reward you earn after success, but rather the *fuel* that makes excellence possible in the first place. Most of us wait until we're certain we're good at something before we allow ourselves to feel energized by it, but he's suggesting the causality runs the other way. A nurse who genuinely cares about her patients' recovery experiences that positive energy during rounds, which sharpens her attention to small changes in their condition—and *that* attention is what makes her better at her work. The genius is in recognizing that the feeling comes first, not last.