Goals from Martin Baturina and Tasos Douvikas either side of a Rasmus Hojlund equaliser gave Como a first win of the season at the Maradona, with the hosts unable to find a way through in the closing stages despite a spell of pressure.
Fàbregas felt the way his side weathered that late period said as much about their growth as the result itself.
"We saw the other side of Como too. When Napoli pressed, we defended well. It's true, we have to get used to the level required this year," he said. "The first 45 minutes were top, the first 15 of the second half were good too, but then we started to realise they'd made changes with quality players coming on.
"Once we understood that, we sat in a low block for the last 15 minutes - we don't like being there, of course, but we understood we can't always be the ones dictating the game. We already learned that last year, especially after that game against Milan at home. We have to keep growing."
He was particularly pleased with the continued progress of Baturina, whose opener set the tone.
"A really great player, he improved enormously in the second half of last season. He also had a great World Cup, arrived back a little later than the others, but he's settling in. Today he did very well," Fàbregas said, framing the club's whole approach around development rather than short-term results.
"These are very young players - our average age was 24, Napoli's was 29. We're competing against teams full of champions, and we're very young. I'm not a coach who has to win, I'm a trainer, an educator - these are young lads and I have to shape them, including those who arrived like Chalobah and Milla."
Asked which Napoli player he would like to take and what a Champions League campaign might bring for his side, Fàbregas politely declined to look too far ahead.
"It's not the moment, we have a really important match against Genoa coming up. There will be plenty of games where the opponent is better than you, and you have to accept that - they'll have an 80 per cent chance of winning, we'll have 20. When you move very fast through the process, like we have, five or six years ahead of schedule, you have to concede something.
"This is a step-by-step process, even if we always want to look forward. Life is made of small moments, and today is a great one. From tomorrow, we're thinking about Friday."