Let’s not be Great
What does it mean to be great? We constantly hear the term “great” bantered around today in the media. Who is the greatest golfer of all time? Who is the greatest quarterback of all time? Let’s make America great again.
Muhammad Ali claimed to be the “greatest of all time” in the prime of his career. Alexander the Great failed in his attempt to conquer the world.
Greatness requires a level of selfishness that exceeds everything else in your life. Looking through history, most people that achieved “greatness” did so on the backs of others. Often destroying others to achieve their lofty ambitions and inflated self-worth. Greatness requires many sacrifices by many people.
Look at Tiger Woods for example. Arguably the greatest golfer of all time. His complete and total commitment to himself and unwavering belief in himself was at the root of his greatness. However, his personal life was also one of selfishness and total focus on his own needs. He was not a good man when he was a great golfer.
Tiger’s world eventually came crashing down.
“What enables us to achieve our greatness contains the seeds of our destruction.”
Jim Valvano
Jim Valvano was the national championship winning basketball coach at North Carolina State. This quote speaks volumes in a few, short words. Greatness is a selfish pursuit and you cannot be great without being selfish. It requires putting your passions ahead of the needs of everyone else. Yet, we glorify those that do it. Athletes, politicians, actors whose egos can only be outmatched by their outlandish claims and actions. We are surrounded by narcissists and we continue to give them audience for their hollow lives.
In 1993, Valvano made a famous speech given at the ESPY Awards shortly before he died of cancer. “To me, there are three things we all should do every day,” said Valvano. “Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think, you should spend some time in thought. And number three is you should have your emotions moved to tears. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”
He didn’t talk about the glory that he had achieved by winning a national championship. In fact, he didn’t really talk about himself at all. He shared his beliefs on how the audience could have a fuller life. It came from a place of goodness, not greatness.
I would encourage everyone not to be great, but to be good. Goodness is a function of lifting others up. Goodness is something that is shared. Greatness is something that is achieved. Goodness is the ability to empathize with other people, feel compassion for them, and put their needs before your own. It means benevolence, altruism and selflessness, and self-sacrifice towards a greater cause .
“Good is the enemy of great”
I would argue if you are truly good, you probably can never be great. But, I do believe a good person has a longer lasting and more meaningful impact on the world than a person that is considered great. The influence of the great person dies with them, while the impact of the good person carries on for generations.