First, there's no guarantees in life. For every good developer that turns into a great developer, there's a good developer who turns into an asshole developer.

First, there's no guarantees in life. For every good developer that turns into a great developer, there's a good developer who turns into an asshole developer. There is no formula that leads to 100% results. However, if you want to be great, the first step is having confidence in yourself and believing that you are great. Second, there may be casualties along your path. A few projects crash and burn. Nobody is born great. They get there. You can't get there without experience. That's definitely on the list. The only way of gaining experience that I know of is through failure. The more catastrophic, the more you learn.