The Magic of Greatness

The late Kobe Bryant was one of the greatest basketball players of all time and renowned for his relentless work ethic. In the book  Mamba Mentality , he wrote:

“I built my game to have no holes. What separates great players from all-time great players is their ability to self-assess, diagnose weaknesses, and turn those flaws into strengths.”

Common wisdom tells us that in order to get ahead, we should maximize our strengths. While this is true if we want to be good at something, but being great requires us to address our weaknesses.

Why Chase Greatness?

Before I get deeper into this topic, I should first ask why you would want to be great at something.

By definition, greatness is hard to achieve. Sacrifices must be made, not just by you, but by others in your circle. As Kobe notes, “people don’t always understand just how much effort from how many people goes into one person chasing a dream to be great.”

However, I’ve observed that simply pursuing greatness gives me a powerful sense of purpose. Untangling the world’s chaos as a mind mapper and sharing my lessons as a creator is something I can stand firmly behind.

In  Man’s Search for Meaning , Viktor Frankl notes that having a sense of purpose made the difference between life and death for concentration camp prisoners.  Studies on the Japanese concept of Ikigai  also suggests that purpose plays a crucial role in determining not just how long we live but also our quality of life.

Remember the  saying : “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”

I’d rephrase it to: “No matter the outcome, if you shoot for the moon, you’ll find your purpose in the stars.”

Before entering the Realm of Greatness, we must first venture through the Realm of Good Enough.

The Realm of Good Enough

There’s actually a time sequence to how you progress from good to great.

You first become good at something by leveraging your strengths.

You still have to put in the effort, but your natural affinities provide the tailwind. With enough time and consistency, it gets you to the Realm of Good Enough, which is where most successful people reside.

It’s a place where the ROI (return on investment) of time and effort is optimized for comfortable living, where you can casually enjoy the fruits of our struggles. As long as there aren’t major shocks, you can contently remain here indefinitely.

However, to access the Realm of Greatness, you need to put in a lot more effort to fill your holes.

Kobe notes these qualities in other players he respects:

”A young Kevin Durant wasn’t that difficult to handle. For almost a decade, he did nothing but address weaknesses and add to his game. Now, his skill set is completely fleshed out. His offensive game has no weaknesses. He’s a nightmare to go up against, and he’s worked to achieve that status.”

It’s not just physical skills either, but facing your inner demons and mastering yourself.

You’ve got to want it badly enough to go through all this hardship. You have to see the journey as the destination, to enjoy the process of getting there rather be enamored with the end rewards. And to achieve greatness without sacrificing your soul and happiness, you need to align it with your values and pinpoint exactly why you are doing it.

For instance, I’m currently a good content creator by cranking out one decent video and article per week. Maybe I’ll hire an editor to save time and spice up my videos. I could probably have a full time job with creation as the side hustle. It’s a pretty simple formula.

But to become a great creator, I have to craft a system that allows me to laser focus on the creation stage and trust my team to own the editing and promotion stages. I have to overcome my perfectionist tendencies, personal fear of revealing too much of myself, and being vulnerable and authentic in front of the public. I have to resist the comfort of a steady paycheck from an employer, and instead focus on growing my own revenue streams.

This brings us to the edge of Greatness.

The Realm of Greatness

There’s a funny thing that happens once you enter the Realm of Greatness. The effort required to sustain the state eventually tappers off and in fact decreases.

There are several reasons for this:

• As Paulo Coelho wrote in  The Alchemist , when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. Once you have proven yourself to be great at something, people will acknowledge your new status and identity. Opportunities will seek you out rather than the other way around. Each opportunity then offers new challenges to overcome and learn from, thus increasing your growth rate. The Realm of Greatness thrives on momentum and change while Good Enough is about maintaining the status quo.

• Great people seek out each other because we inspire and learn from each other. Our fields may be vastly different, but the intensity and dedication is the same. Whenever I need a motivational boost, I would envision and embody the great people in my life or those that I have absorbed into my  council of advisors .

• Greatness is a habitual mindset solidified over years of practice. If you’ve achieved this state, then the habits that carried you here are already engrained in you. From a  neuroscience standpoint , habits are essentially shortcuts for our brains to reduce cognitive load in normal behaviors. If habits that lead to greatness is normalized, then it takes less effort to maintain them and, conversely, more effort to dethrone them.

Greatness Trickle Effects

When a person becomes truly great at something, their craft becomes a way of life, their personal philosophy that trickles into everything they do and how they see the world. Perhaps the greatest benefit of pursuing greatness are the cross-disciplinary superpowers that it bestows upon us like critical thinking, confidence, resilience, adaptability and perseverance. These traits expand our comfort zones and allows us to have more experiences in our youth and age gracefully as we get older.

I see this in Kobe who transitioned from winning NBA championships to taking home Academy Awards. Or my friend Larry, who bagged an astounding 60 patents during his illustrious career at HP, retired and found new meaning by funneling his passion for invention into marquetry and building hot rod trucks from scratch.

In this way, we don’t need to be great in order to grasp these benefits. Merely its pursuit injects us with passion, intention, and ultimately more fun in life.

Change is Inevitable

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: given how fast our world changes today, staying indefinitely in the Realm of Good Enough may not be an option. We might as well preempt that change by discovering what our own brand of greatness looks like. If you’re ready for that journey, then head over to my article on  finding our Ikigai Zones .

I’d love to know:

• What would you like to be great in?

• What opportunities and improvements in your life quality would happen if you pursued it?

Tweet or DM me on  Twitter / Instagram @shengsilver.

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