Forcing Greatness

You can’t force greatness. I’m specifically thinking about parents that try to do everything in their power to set up their child for a “successful career”. Of course, there are many actions a parent can take that are net positive for a child, such as being engaged in their education. But there are some parents who try to over-optimize. Some examples of over-optimizing are sending kids to very specialized prep schools or after-school programs, or enrolling them in very niche extracurriculars, or even trying to transplant them in some end state e.g. by getting them to start some non-profit (so many high-schoolers seem to have their own non-profit nowadays… what happens to these once they get their Ivy League acceptance letter?). In my experience I have not met anyone that went through any of these programs and ended up doing something great. By “great” I mean unique, impactful, inspiring, or moving. What, then, really leads to greatness?

The contradictory nature of greatness means that there are some entry-level criteria like work ethic and intelligence, but at the same time every form of greatness is unique. People that are great at anything each become savants through their own journey. Beyond that, a lot of examples of greatness involve going against the grain or following a highly uncertain or uncommon path. So if there was ever a formula to greatness, the mere existence of such a deterministic, concrete playbook would render it invalid. If everyone just knew how to be great, that “great” would become the new normal.

I’m not going to label myself as “great” at anything – I think that’s for others to decide. But I do have some objective sense of my competence, and how I’ve become a lot more competent over the years. Most of this progress has stemmed from isolation. When you get even a few minutes all to yourself, you get to tap into raw, unbiased personal thoughts. This sparks the creativity and uniqueness that is strictly necessary to ever become great at anything. No one ever became great at anything by following the herd. Everyone has to derive a formula of their own.