things work out at times but it seems the reward is almost always a contorted and compromised version of what was being sought after in the first place...
would you mind sharing your views on this?

Perhaps, especially in that sometimes one is looking for something other than what one thinks, on the face of it, that she is looking for, or seeking after.

'The reward', emphasis on The, is so specific, might it be limited, you know being so singular and all?
Sometimes things come by way of more than one track.

And we get in such a hurry to see the particular payoff, sometimes a whole lot of perfect stuff we miss, or can't see until after the fact, much later, type of thing

Do you get me at all? I am not so articulate just now.

Katia,

I told one teacher, "I am a perfectionist".  The teacher replied, "And a bad one at that." 

If I wait until I figure everything out I will never start.

I try to put a plan together and modify it when I make a mistake.  In the end it "usually" turns out better than if I never started.

I typically can mow the lawn and it turns out right when I am done because the task was mundane.  Complex tasks typically have to be refined.

Some things work out tight the first time. Other things don't. The ones that don't come out right the first time are probably the ones we become attached to most.