What is Greatness? What is the measure of Greatness? Are ideas or actions alone Great? Can Greatness be learned?
Beethoven, Aristotle, Darwin, Alexander, Hitler, Plato. All of these men are Great. Greatness, however, is not synonymous with Good. Therefore there can be beings of Great Evil or Great Good, as the above list suggests. Beethoven, Aristotle, and Darwin were Good. Their creations have benefited mankind artistically, philosophically, and scientifically. Alexander, Hitler, and Plato have destroyed nations, murdered millions, and presented destructive philosophies. The point here is not to determine how Greatness is applied, but it is to see what makes the quality of Greatness to be Great.
Greatness occurs when exceptional thinking is brought forth to reality consistently through action. Yes, Action. Action is the key here. Everyone shares ideas of Greatness in their mind. Beethoven had ideas, but Beethoven worked consistently everyday to bring his thoughts to reality. Darwin researched and wrote everyday to find the common link between all species. These men had ideas like many of us. But unlike many of us these men had conviction in their ideas, they believed and lived for the ideas in their mind. Do you fight for your ideas everyday, or do you work under the ideas of others?
So Greatness is achieved when supreme thought meets ruthless action. An important point to realize is that Hitler, Alexander, and Plato all thought they were doing supreme good. The question thus arises, How does one know which side of Greatness one is headed? Easy, do your ideas uplift and create life or do they destroy it? Life is the universal standard by which all actions should be judged. Therefore, work to create and not destroy so History will not bear a smudge upon your name.
Ideas and actions together must be formed to achieve in reality. Reality is the ultimate measurement. Actions without thought is robotic and thought without action is lazy. In Greatness, superb ideas, are acted upon. How can you create a superb idea? To begin with, the best ideas, are grounded in reality, they have immediate and realistic applications to the world around them, they affect the world. Secondly, a great idea is composed of many lesser or smaller ideas. For example, to be Great would be to sail all the oceans, to be ordinary would be to sail just one. To be Great would be to explain the evolution of all species, to be ordinary would be to explain evolution of one species. To be Great would be to run in a marathon for 10 years straight, to be ordinary would be to run in just one. The Greater the idea, the Greater time and effort is involved.
So how do you create your Greatness? Think of a goal that spans a considerable amount of time and effort. Next, once achieving the first goal, build another goal on top of that one, which relates to it. Now do that 10 more times. Now your beginning to approach the realm of Greatness. It is a realm with no boundaries and happiness. It is internally driven and motivated. Remember the measure of Greatness is how much action can you sustain behind your Great ideas. You see, Great Men act upon their ideas. This often requires discipline, planning, and foresight. This is where ordinary people falter.
Now you see that in order to achieve Greatness one must act consistently upon a supreme idea. Now you see that in Great men, their Greatness evolved from the action part of the formula not the idea part. We all have ideas. History remembers the ones who were strong and wise enough to do what it took for their ideas to blossom in reality.
-Luci