The paradox of Dreams

What is the greatest fear a potentially great man could have than the fear that he may yet remain ordinary at the end of his life. When he lies in his deadbed and fragments of his pasts flash through the grey remains of his brain, he sees all that he could have been? Is there a more tragic end to a man’s life? An ordinary man would not mind an ordinary life (and death). A spiritual man who has realised the futility of the cycle of life and death will not bother. A great man who achieved more than what he was worth would die with pride. But the man who could have been great, who should have been great, but for his lack of enterprise or by coincidence and fate would die a slow and a painful death.

Dreams, the stuff that differentiates the great from the “also-lived”. Following the dreams staunchly and to the end, the quality that differentiates the great from the “futily lived”. The above two reflects the three classes of people that walk this planet. There is one another but I will not talk of that class in the context of dreams.
Coming back to the three classes of people:

1) Ordinary
2) Futily lived
3) Great

The ordinary man neither dreams nor has the power to put the dream in to the machine of labour, courage and guts to churn out reality. In a lot of ways he is the nearest to the spiritual the fourth class of which I wont elaborate, the only difference being that the Spiritual doesn’t bother nor feels jealous whereas the ordinary man does and more of another man’s success.

There is however a huge gulf between the Ordinary and the other two classes. The line demarcating the second class and the third is thin and in a lot of ways public adulation. There is a great quote from a great man, “The thin line between a genius and an eccentric is success”. Both the classes have the power to dream. But the difference lies in implementing it. The combination of tenacity, confidence and luck is the critical component that marks the thin line. The second class may often have bigger and better dreams and the third class may have modest ambitions but the combination of tenacity, confidence and luck have the innate ability to transform modest dreams into great achievements.

In the rather straightforward parameters set above, tenacity and confidence is a rational way of determining success. But what about luck, it is not tangible? Is it unfair that circumstances and issues beyond ones control determines success? How can Bush Jr. sit in the same Oval Office as Lincoln when many other great men notably Martin Luther King Jr, etc have failed?

The answer to this abnormality lies in a small intangible quality which sportsman and more specifically boxers may identify with, “Guts”. The ability to rise after every fall, to take every punch and force the body beyond any natural explanation to last another round and another and another, till you win. This quality rises over all else, injustice, ill luck, and lack of ability. And every man who dreams knows that a gut is what will last him the distance. Hence, a potential great man writhes in pain when he sees his life flash past him and he sees that he has failed not because he couldn’t dream, nor because he didn’t have the ability, but because he didn’t have the guts. He allowed his body to rule his mind and quit when he shouldn’t have. That hurts. The lack of guts hurts. But hey, having guts brings more pain, only that in the end the pain is justified by success.