He fought a drawn out battle to get his film "Citizen Kane" shown in enough theaters to break even, against an empire of people who did not want it shown. Eventually it produced modest returns, but far short of expectation, and for awhile it faded into artistic obscurity. Since then, critics the world over have hailed it as one of the greatest movie works of all time.
Out of frustration over the battle, he remarked that film artistry is "about two percent movie-making and ninety-eight percent hustling." The rest of his life he struggled to get his vision across with projects that never quite panned out, many of them ending up in disaster. He swam in debt continually. A talented genius, he never fully mastered the business side of his work.
Very often in business I used to hear people say "Don't bother me with the details, I'm a big picture person." They use creativity and talent as an excuse not to do other things necessary to succeed. While it is true that delegation can be a secret to success, one still has to take the time and make the effort to oversee and manage what is delegated. In short, one must hustle, regardless of vision.
I saw a movie once, where a salesman spent a lot of time sitting at the bar despondent about his lack of success. "Oh that's easy, sugar..." said the cocktail waitress. "Like my granpappy used to tell me, if you want to hustle up the honey, get out and hustle, honey."
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