You Can Wish To Be Great Or You Can Be Actually Great
As Ryan Holiday Says, Ego Is The Enemy!
A lot of us say that we want to pursue greatness: But what most of us actually mean or/and want is to be known as one of the greats. We want to be the G.O.A.T. However, there is a difference between having the desire to be known as great and being one. On the surface, both look the same but there is a difference.
The most important part of the pursuit of greatness is pushing yourself out of the comfort zone. But if your desire is to be known as great, you will stop doing uncomfortable things because you are now obsessed with preserving greatness rather than pursuing it.
Imagine a musician who has been consistently pushing herself out of her comfort zone, regularly upgrading herself by learning new things and creating innovative tunes. Now, let’s say her hustle bears fruit and she becomes conventionally successful — she now has fame and money. While this is a dream of any creative person, what we are not told is that success can be the biggest trap ever. Let’s say this person keeps composing innovative tunes and is soon labeled by experts and audiences as “a great.” There will come a time when the musician will have to choose — will she obsess about protecting her image of “a great” or will she continue to pursue greatness? If she chooses the former, her focus will be on maintaining the status quo. To do that, she will have to minimize risks. Moving out of the comfort zone, in this case, would mean that her image of “a great” will be under a threat — a risk her ego might not be able to afford. On the other hand, if she chooses the latter, she will have to throw caution to the wind and risk her “great” reputation. If she doesn’t do this, she will be simply trying to repeat the work that brought her success — a strategy that might work for some time but eventually, in the long run, either the audience will get bored or her creative self will be dissatisfied.
There is a reason why conversations about “success formulas” are so popular. There is a reason why so many writers and self-help gurus make money, writing/speaking about them in bestselling books/seminars. It’s because most of us are obsessed with looking great rather than pursuing greatness. We are searching for a success formula so that we don’t have to push ourselves out of our comfort zone. Because moving out of the comfort zone requires us to give up the safety that comes from a great reputation.
The pursuit of greatness doesn’t have a destination. It is a life-long process.
Looking great and having a great reputation, on the other hand, is all about reaching a place where your image (of G.O.A.T) will be cemented forever. Very few artists are able to take the risk of giving up the need to be known as a great. Some of them are only understood and considered “great,” decades after their death. Some of them remain obscure. Some of them have the courage to experiment with something new, much to the wrath of their fans. Remember your favorite heavy metal band that experimented with an alternative rock? Or that best-selling writer who is known for his wise advice but has now decided to write a book of horror short stories? There is no guarantee that we liked/will like their experiments. But their desire to pursue greatness instead of obsessing about looking great makes them special. And great.
