CARLTON FLETCHER: The (usually fruitless) pursuit of greatness

Ten thousand hours, I’m so damn close I can taste it. On some Malcolm Gladwell, David Bowie-meets-Kanye sh—.

— Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

Few of us are born to greatness.

There is, of course, a desire to be great, to be significant, in most of us, but only an infinitesimal number of us has the combination of genetics, timing and the wherewithal to do what it takes to reach such heights.

There are great figures in history — Gandhi, Benjamin Franklin, Mother Teresa, John Lennon, Martin Luther King, Franklin Roosevelt, Muhammad Ali, Winston Churchill, Golda Meir, Nelson Mandela — whose beginnings were no more spectacular than most of our own. However, through force of will and recognizing and taking advantage of time, place, skills and circumstances, these individuals exacted change that impacted the world.

I rewatched the great movie “Stand and Deliver” recently, about inner-city LA math teacher Jaime Escalante — played by the excellent Edward James Olmos — who refused to let his students use the ready-made excuses of their poverty, family circumstances, low expectations and substandard materials keep them from excelling when his colleagues said he was foolish to even try.

That’s another factor added to the greatness equation: inspiration. And while its is the real-life students from the barrio who excelled at Garfield High School, I’d argue that Escalante’s greatness is what impacted their lives in such a significant way.

As Malcolm Gladwell wrote in his definitive book “Outliers,” even those born with superior genetics, circumstances and timing must still work hard to achieve greatness. In fact, Gladwell came up with evidence that points to 10,000 hours of devoted work as the minimum requirement to achieve true greatness, even for those like The Beatles, Mozart and Bill Gates, who are recognized among the best ever in their pursuits.

Seeing then that it takes lots of hard work, a large percentage of us throw in the towel and admit that this greatness thing is not such a big deal after all. It’s cool if you want to make me a hero and put me on the front page and let me be the lead story on the evening news, but no one said anything about all that work. 10,000 hours? I think I’ll just stick with greatness in my own mind or on social media or on my blog.

(A quick side note: This is why reality TV, social media, self-publication, a 24-hour news cycle and other such modern marvels are dangerous. Only through these kinds of portals do we have a world in which a Paris Hilton or a Rihanna or a Todd Chrisley or the Robertson clan from “Duck Dynasty” or the Unabomber can be celebrities … people with little to no talent who are famous only for being famous … or infamous.)

Here’s the thing about greatness, though. You don’t have to be great to have an impact on the people who circulate in your sphere of influence. You can find satisfaction and purpose in a couple of ways: one, by using the skills you’ve been granted to be the best you can possibly be at your chosen profession, pursuit or as part of a group or organization; and two, by being nice to people and showing them respect.

So what if your chosen profession — electrician, brick mason, CPA, sanitation worker, park ranger, journalist — is not necessarily one that lends itself to greatness. And so what if your favorite pursuit — golf, computer geekery, fishing, spelunking, jogging, competitive eating — is not one that generates a lot of excitement. Do either as well as you can, using your time at your job or your pastime as more than just a means to a paycheck or a time-waster, and you will definitely get noticed.

That brown-noser Labinski may get the promotion you deserve, and that no-talent hack Davis may get the cover story when your work is more deserving. But any profession you pursue that offers you pay in exchange for your services is worthy of your best. (As Judge Smails so aptly put it in “Caddyshack”: The world needs ditch-diggers, too.) Giving an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay is still a worthy and satisfying pursuit.

And, somewhere along the way, be nice to people. We’ve become an angry nation, and most of us are so clueless about the complex issues that are creating such chaos in our world, we don’t even know what we’re angry about. It’s not so far-fetched to equate greatness — or, at least, goodness — with purity of spirit.

So put in the 10,000 hours, find the perfect outlet for your passion, work as diligently as you can, find the right time, place and circumstances … and be great. Or just do the things you do as well as you can and spread around a little sunshine in a frighteningly dark world.

We may all agree that greatness on a grand scale is unachievable for most of us. But we can certainly obtain it in degrees.

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected]. Follow @ABH_Fletcher on Twitter.

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