The Fourth Road To Greatness

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them".

The origin of this quote:

From Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, 1601:

Malvalio:
In my stars I am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.

 The great Bard wrote these lines when there were maybe a little over sixteen hundred people inhabiting this planet. Hence it was easy to distribute greatness amongst themselves. Well we have come a long way since then and have multiplied as a people many many many times over. Which has led to a fourth category which is: those that were out fishing when the three categories were being distributed and are now surrounded by people who were either born great, achieved greatness or had it thrust upon them.

How do you identify such people? Look for the ones that stand around asking themselves these questions - Am I born great?  Have I achieved greatness?  Have I had greatness thrust upon me? Uh...Um..Er... Strike three - I'm out!!

The Great Ones (irrespective of how they came by it) have always blazed trails through uncharted waters and unexplored territories and trundled down roads less traveled always knowing in some eerie way the 'how' and 'why' of doing it and they seem to be doing just fine. They have relied on their learning brought on by years of experience, inner enlightenment and a vision playing on a plasma screen the size of a small building inside their heads. They have this inner guiding spirit steering them through turbulent waters. For the rest of us there are the "How to..." books.

Considering that more than half of my childhood pals that I grew up with are now well and truly settled in the first bracket, I cant help but come to a shattering conclusion that its a little late in the day for entertaining any hopes of falling into the first category. Another not so shattering conclusion is that I need to consume as many of these books as possible in as less a time as possible. This two-pronged goal at this stage appears no less formidable than a double-barreled shot gun. Pointing at me.

Well. So the next time I walk into a bookstore, instead of browsing through all the delightful sections where I would normally find books that I would acquire and consume with great delight, I would like this time to make my way very purposefully to the sections where all the "books-that-really-matter" are. Now this is a little easier said than done. First, I need to identify said books. And second, of the identified books, I need to select the ones that I can afford to acquire, consume and benefit from. Which is where I start getting woozy.

And this is where you come in. With your vast experience and knowledge, with all the learning of having traveled paths less traveled,  of having navigated choppy waters that defied navigation, and holding high a guiding light that has lit up and shown many the way. If you would be so kind as to shed some of that light my way, I would be grateful, and as a sign of my gratitude help you hold the light up so that you may rest your weary arm as you make your journey through life spreading enlightenment all around! And if that were to appear to be a bit intimidating, then a simple thank you and I would be on my way.