I would say it's worse to fail 2 books in to your trilogy and never finish it, than not to get started at all.
As that says to people there was something very wrong with your work.
And that he didn't even just finish it to finish the story, and to have another completed manuscript ready in case anyone asks. A friend just had a story accepted for an anthology and the editor asked if he had anything longform. He had a completed novel ready to send with the caveat that the first five chapters had gone through more revision than the rest, to acknowledge he's not just sending a first draft but there's also more work to be done.
What kind of person does this illustrate?
- Writing because he enjoys creating
- Being prepared to share a work of passion when opportunity strikes, because it could be anytime anywhere
- Revising his work because nothing is perfect, and everything must be questioned by you yourself before the outside world sees it
- Communicating with someone online without coming off as the Platonic ideal of an asshole
- Not overselling yourself and taking criticism with grace
These are some of the core skills of a working creative. Now the way way top-tier who are legit geniuses or had massive popular success can get away with personality flaws, but if you're just looking for some cool credits and enough cash to justify the effort spent doing something you love, it's not hard.
It was the same with his fucking standup, it takes years and years of being almost as bad as Pat was on stage before they find themselves and feel comfortable. But he just quit. Was he ever going to be Chappelle? No, but he could have been the guy who hosted or middled at his local club, had a podcast with ~10k listeners, have something in his life.
Total sperg-out, I know, it's just that people who clog up creative spaces because they only want to be famous and not because they have anything at all to say really grind my pepperoni. There's a lot of happy ground between "famous" and too chickenshit to try and fail.