You were liked here before you were any good.

Hold still and take the whole of that. It is not an accusation.
It is a fact, and a lucky one, and there are people in this room
who have trained six years and would swap you for it tomorrow.

Only finish the sentence, because you have never once finished it.
You were liked here before you were any good, and —
and nothing. That is the trouble. There has never been an and.

The Book of the Bard — Arrival 51:8