Gradually then Suddenly

I’m late this morning.  Our clocks are all over the place.  We pulled out power going away so the electric one is totally wrong until corrected.  The battery one has given up any desire to be right (time to change the battery.)  So I thought I was getting up at 4am and it was after five and we are out by six am.
But I am home now and writing what I wanted to write about.  It was a quote I read yesterday by Ernest Hemingway.  I have written about the subject before and did not know that he had said something that has become a popular quote on the subject.  It is from one of his books.  Someone asks another how they ended up bankrupt.  The reply was something like “gradually then suddenly.”
The reason I like that so much is I see it as the way life is.  Decisions I make may have no immediate sudden impact but when I pursue something gradually there comes a time when something happens suddenly.  What I do in the gradually impacts the suddenly. 
That can be the case for good and bad.  Even if I decide to do nothing the impact may seem minimal at the start but there comes a “suddenly” time.  Even if it is not my demise it can be a realization that all this time has gone by, and I have done nothing of value for myself or someone else.
By the same token if I have been using the gradual time to build something then when the “suddenly” time comes, I am ready and can use it to further what I am doing.
The big mistake for me is to make no use of the gradual time.  Often the gradual time is the time of preparation.  It may seem that day follows day without impact, but something is building.  I guess it is something like I say often.  Lots of small make a lot.
To me gradual time is lots of small seemingly inconsequential building blocks.  Then suddenly something is ready for use by myself and others when it is most needed.
The gradual times can seem to me to be a waste of time, but it never is.  Gradual building is still building.