Malcolm Gladwell’s speech at AIGA has a lot of inspiration in it.  His focus on Fleetwood Mac has some holes as the argument would stand stronger had that configuration of the band been toiling away for all that time.  It’s something I needed to hear though, as I sometimes get stuck in the “what’s the points?” and the idea of seemingly overnight success.
I’m currently reading Blink but will be adding his new book, Outliers, which deals with this idea of long gestation periods and practice in the periphery, to my list.