That makes sense. And I'll add that feeling the reward was energizing. For whatever reason, I experienced interest from a few girls in high school even before I made much of an effort, and I had just enough success in my first two years of college to keep me going even when it wasn't going well.

I'd compare it to the sport of golf, in which it's well known that hitting just one good shot (straight and pure) in a hundred will keep someone for the next thousand shots because they feel sure that they can do it again.