It definitely helps to recognize the following: (1) Among the set of people currently recognized as "great" - while most of them do have considerable talent, f

It definitely helps to recognize the following: (1) Among the set of people currently recognized as "great" - while most of them do have considerable talent, for the vast majority of them, their "greatness" comes from the trifecta of: having talent; being in the right place at the right moment of history (i.e. luck); and having the intuition (and trusting that intuition) to grab that moment by the horns and ride it as far as they can go with it. (In addition to of course working extremely hard, but we all know that part already). Many titans of industry (e.g. Bezos, Jobs, Gates) clearly excel in all three magic layers of this "trifecta". But the important thing to realize is that it isn't just a matter of talent - luck has a hell of a lot to do with achieving "greatness", especially its rarefied upper strata. (2) Many who do become "great" do so at considerable personal cost - be it broken interpersonal relationships, negative health consequences; and/or becoming assholes and or white collar criminals. (3) For every person admitted to the inner sanctum of "greatness" there's a huge, huge number of people who either fail or (more likely) simply opt out - especially when they take stock of the fact that the price of admission likely involves a significant risk of falling the category described in item (2). (4) Finally the whole "great man" (person, whatever) notion of history is - as any genuinely great person (recognized or otherwise) will tell you - fundamentally bollocks. The vast majority of "great things" that happen do so as the emergent result of many people (sometimes, like in WW II, a great many people) not trying to be "great", but simply doing the right thing -- and having the courage and foresight to put aside their self-interest in doing so. So in a nutshell... the best way to deal with one's "failure" to become great is to screw the goal of becoming "great" altogether. And to focus more on actions in more in category (4) above... while of course avoiding actions in category (2).