Do you think you're destined for greatness?

Yes or No.

Haha

Yes, after all I passed my GED. :)

haha………I’ve always wondered – do visions of greatness = illusions of grandeur ?

Nohea,

I think there is a fine grey area between the two.
A firm acknowledgement of one’s qualitites should ideally go hand in hand with a realistic knowledge of one’s limitations. It’s when the latter is absent that visions of greatness can easily become illusions of grandeur. I think the picture above speaks volumes in that regard.

Word.

ego trips..

We all think that, don’t we?

why would anyone worry about this?

Take a look at how great peoples lives end: bitter, withdrawn, reclusive, broken
Catch the documentary about Carl G Fisher – re-watch the end of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Greatness is overrated.
Worry about the small things in your life.

MR. Peabody ;), what we think of greatness is overrated, but there’s really no set definition for it. Small things can be great.

Indeed.

yes, quite

I think these lines from Amator (1979) Krzysztof Kieślowski are relevant.

Diretcor Krzysztof Zanussi, playing himself in the film, says this to the film club:

01:01:21,527 —>
I made this film because I feel……that the odds in the world today
are against honest people..They seldom succeed. Too many of them fall
by the wayside
Is it enough for a director to believe……he’s telling the truth? Or should he try to verify it?
He must. And there lies our eternal dilemma Wondering if what we’re saying
is objectively true, or wise……without being able to specify how it can be tested
Each of us hopes that his film will help someone. That it will change society
But let’s face the facts. We are no longer alchemists of the soul……capable of changing the world.
Criteria are relative. There are no hard and fast rules
We don’t know. And this uncertainty is our strength
It’s what drives us to say things over and over again
Differently, more tellingly, more precisely
—> 01:02:39,196

He is saying in essence don’t worry about big ideas, it has been said before. Focus on the uncertainty of your life – which is exactly how the film ends

I Am the Walrus :P

Yes I do. Why wouldn’t anybody think that? Who would want to think “nah, I totally know I’m going to fail”

I already am great.

What?

—DiB

Nah, I totally know I’m going to fail, Ryan.

“Success. Not greatness. Success is the only God the entire world serves…” . Maybe the whole concept of greatness does no longer exist… Or does it?

Of course I think I am…even if maybe deep inside of me I know I am not, it makes me happier to think that a have something special that nobody else can even imagine…and if it makes me happier, i don’t know why I should stop thinking like that. The world is only how you imagine it is !

Yes. I am an American, after all. It’s The American Way to have delusions of grandeur.

“The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light" – carl sagan

At 15, I thought I was a genius and destined for greatness.
At 25, I thought I was mis-understood and that certain events and people were standing in the way of my true development.
At 35, I was too busy with wife, child, and job to worry about greatness, but still saw some light shining at the end of the tunnel.
At 45, I was studying the greatness of others and wondering about my own lack of significance..
At 55, I was becoming bitter about the failure of my life to lead to any semblance of greatness.
At 60+, I was reconciled to having greatness snatched from me and writing a memoirs of sorts to figure out where it all went wrong. Now I am reconciled to greatness coming in my next go ’round at life, or the afterlife – if there is one!

Moral of story – don’t wait too long for greatness to arrive. You must seek it out and grab it hard or the magic ring can slip right through your fingers. Also, I have learned by studying the lives of others who achieved some modicum of greatness that you need to know a lot of other significant people to achieve greatness. For example, Einstein knew Chaplin, and so on. Another warning: no one ever found greatness on the internet (except those who invented google or some other on-line obsession).

I’ll now let the rest of you get on with the pursuit of your greatness. Good luck losers!

Einstein and Chaplin knew each other when they were 15?

Good advice Joe ….

Well my hope is that I will achieve greatness in an obvious way of being a great director and influencing and effecting many many people. However let’s say I don’t reach all of my goals to the fullest, I know that I will always strive to have some positive influence on people’s lives in the little things. Just an action here and there to make someone’s day brighter.

And you know what? Is the later not even greater than the first?

Can you submit messageboard threads to Failblog?

@ Joe Arthaus, thank you. Those are words of wisdom.

I’m gonna aim for greatness, what with my GED and all.

Ah Blue K and his GED! :)

Blue K – I have my B.S. – but unfortunately it is not a degree. However, I have gone far with it.

Quote from the film Fallen Idol :

Baines (Sir Ralph Richardson): “Its a great life if you don’t weaken.”

Every human being is a loser, and it´s a worthless effort to strive after greatness unless one gives a damn about the worthless appreciation of these efforts by others, since for achieving it don´t you prove to be a genius or extremely talented but obsessed with an idea and willed to sacrifice happiness for it. But some people aren´t able to choose and need to burn out themselves for artistic or scientific discoveries which are going to consume a hell of their time, and find themselves with 60+ at a point where they have seldomly enjoyed life, have either gained money they don´t know how to spend or already lost it and get admired although they learned to not care about it anymore. There´s nothing to lament unless one worries about getting a pompous funeral and being remered by some anonymous people when oneself ceased to exist and has no benefit of it at all. Is it important to leave a gigantic fingermark on this world in order to prove to onseself and others that one existed? I don´t think so.