People who are great are those who are in tune with the societal values of their time. Theyre able to identify the right time and place for the parameters of success. For greatness to take place it has to carry beyond the year, the decade, or the century, it has be more than just something superficial, it has to be able to travel well from one area to another.

Greatness doesnt always produce immediate success. For example, Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick at height of his creative achievements, but it didnt sell well. Unable to support himself as a writer, Melville worked as a minor business clerk. Eventually, the culture caught up with him and his writing became a successful. Henry David Thoreau, who wrote the classic Walden, went unnoticed during his life, and died in obscurity.

Because of this gap between the lack of immediate success and eventual recognition, it is often said that great people are ahead of their times. People who are great often seem unique, isolated, or even out of touch because they often represent the beginning of change. As a result, the depth of their contribution and their full worth may not be recognized for as long as 500 years.

A good example of this is Leonardo da Vinci, because many of his inventions and ideas, such as the airplane, the helicopter, roller bearings, air-conditioning, and the self-driven car, werent even comprehended until the 20th century technology became available.

There are people who achieve greatness just from their very nature and not from their accomplishments. These people dont have to write symphonies, paint pictures, or write books. For this type of person, greatness is solely on the inside, through their thoughts and feelings, not through their actions.

Most people who are great dont make for a dramatic biography. The significance of their lives is not what happens to them or what they produce. Rather, they lead lives of inner silence. They represent the other side of greatness, greatness thats there without fame or fortune. We dont think of them as making it in societal terms. Yet they have a total commitment to the best of life and the betterment of society.

Some of these quiet greats have been religious contemplatives, whose lives provide an affirmative answer to the question philosophers love to ask: If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, has it made any sound?

The world has many great people who are not religious per se, and have only limited contact with the wider world. For example, your generous and kind next-door neighbor who is loved by the whole community many not be remembered by history after he or she is gone, but in terms of real personal greatness, his or her ability to increase the value of love in others is second to none. Because this person is able to pass on these unique human qualities to his or her family and friends he or she does have a positive influence the world, however small.

What this means is that when you look at great people throughout history, the distinction is not so much between being great and not being great, but rather it should be between greatness manifesting itself in a small arena of life and in a very large one.

Greatness is normal, its natural, its necessary, and its certainly beneficial for us all, even though it may have little to do with fame or fortune. While success is dependent on external circumstances and achievements, greatness is an inner contact between the individual and the universe to create and discover deepening qualities of life and how best to express them. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, According to the depth from which you draw your life, such is the depth of your accomplishment, manners, and presence.

Great people are those who allow greatness to blossom. Its no so much the kind of activity theyre involved in, be it music, gardening, raising children or finding a cure for a disease. Its the effect they have on all of us. It doesnt really matter whether theyre well-known or not; great people can create great effects even on a quiet level.

We need greatness in the world more than we need any other single human or natural resource. As we move further into the 21st century, perhaps for first time in history, we can think about the possibility of an entire society of great individuals. Anyone who is willing to take on the responsibility for his or her own greatness is giving the world the best possible gift.

Copyright2006 by Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.