In the day-to-day life of a graphic designer, we would all love to work on out projects till they are fantastic. But most of the time, there is no time/budget. Most of the time I have to be rather pragmatic when it comes to "wowing" anyone. But that's really how you get those chances to work on something big and exciting that you can sink all your skills in till it's perfect. By making every small thing matter. No project too small. No font-choice too unimportant. Attention to detail instead of waiting for big hits. And it's a good learning process too. Because that's really what those "awesome works" are made of. And once people are convinced that everything you touch (no matter how small or unimportant the project is), that's when you get those projects that you can show off later. And you learned how to do it on the way.