Can i be great

What's more, those who received a second grant were not more productive than those who only received a first grant, and impact was generally a decelerating function of funding. The authors suggest that funding strategies that focus more on targeting diversity than "excellence" are likely to be more productive to society.

In a more recent study , researchers looked at the funding provided to 12, researchers in Quebec over a fifteen year period. They concluded that "both in terms of the quantity of papers produced and of their scientific impact, the concentration of research funding in the hands of a so-called 'elite' of researchers generally produces diminishing marginal returns. Taking these sort of findings seriously, the European Research Council recently gave the biochemist Ohid Yaqub 1.

Coming up with a multidimensional definition of serendipity, Yaqub pinned down some of the mechanisms by which serendipity in science happens, including astute observation, "controlled sloppiness" allowing unexpected events to occur while tracking their origins , and the collaborative action of networks of scientists.

This is consistent with Dean Simonton's extensive work on the role of serendipity and chance in the evolution of creative and impactful scientific discoveries. Building on this work, the Italian team who simulated the role of luck in success went one step further in their simulation. Playing God so to speak , they explored the effectiveness of a number of different funding strategies.

They applied different strategies every five years during the 40 year worklife of each agent in the simulation. Without any funding at all, we already saw that the most successful agents were very lucky people with about average levels of talent. What happens once they introduced various funding opportunities into the simulation? This table reveals the most efficient funding strategies over the 40 year period in descending order of efficiency i.

Starting at the bottom of the list, you can see that the least effective funding strategies are those that give a certain percentage of the funding to only the already most successful individuals. The "mixed" strategies that combine giving a certain percentage to the most successful people and equally distributing the rest is a bit more effective, and distributing funds at random is even more efficient. This last finding is intriguing because it is consistent with other research suggesting that in complex social and economic contexts where chance is likely to play a role, strategies that incorporate randomness can perform better than strategies based on the "naively meritocratic" approach.

With that said, the best funding strategy of them all was one where an equal number of funding was distributed to everyone. This suggests that if a funding agency or government has more money available to distribute, they'd be wise to use that extra money to distribute money to everyone, rather than to only a select few.

As the researchers conclude,. This incredible Italian team didn't even stop there! Hey, if you're playing God, why not go all the way. Using this framework, they simulated either a very stimulating environment, rich of opportunities for everyone like that of rich and industrialized countries such as the U. Here's what they found:. Look at the difference between the outcome distribution of the environment rich in opportunities for everyone top from the outcome distribution of the environment poor in opportunities for everyone bottom.

In the universe simulated at the top, a number of medium to highly talented individuals were able to reach very high levels of success, and the average number of medium-highly talented individuals who reached at least above average levels of success was quite high.

It looks like many people are struggling with the concept of "greatness". Let's continue to support one another on the journey there. Interestingly enough, I realized that it was not the sporadic highs that were exceptional, but instead the long hauls; the sequences of events that seemed minimal at each juncture, but compounded into major gains.

This led me to think further about what greatness truly means. In fact, it comes from recognizing that there is no such thing as greatness at a specific instance in time.

Greatness is instead a reflection of a period of effort, since greatness in a single instance can be reduced to luck. It is about being dependable and disciplined, and ultimately it is earned. Yet, many people in life realistically do not want to put in the effort over a sustained period of time to actually get to 1.

You know what brings success? Hard work brings success. This notion comes from the media focusing on outliers, whether it be events or personalities which diverge from the norm. Not only can this encourage people to aim for notoriety just for the sake of it think Elizabeth Holmes , but it makes the rest of us believe that correlation of those outliers is causation; in other words, success of those individuals is due to their offbeat ways. Continuous effort is a more thoughtful approach that leads to greatness when the following statements are true:.

These small things in fact do not need to be done in a great way, but a good way, repeatably. In fact, I would advise not to focus on perfection, as it is often the enemy of the successful. For example:. We normally set out in life with good intentions. We imagine that as we invest in something, we will naturally continue to move in the right direction.

If anything, things will get easier, right? The described trajectory is what we perceive on the left. Predictable, linear, and a direct reflection of effort put in. Rarely does success in anything look like that. The other two-thirds of your time you want to be doing the activity. Testing yourself.

Get your nose out of that book. Avoid the classroom. Whatever it is you want to be the best at, be doing it. Our brains evolved to learn by doing things, not by hearing about them.

More on how to shift from reading to doing here. More on how to find your sweet spot for learning here. The people who combined commitment with a little bit of practice, their skills went off the charts. Commit to the long haul. Even works for mice :. More on how long term commitment can take you to the next level here. Study the best to be the best. Because people will always criticize you no matter how good you are.

Others stop us from doing great things because of their own limits. But had he listened to him, SpaceX would not exist today. If you want to become great in life, control your emotions instead of letting them control you. When you are submerged in negativity, your mind cannot think straight and stops you from reaching your goals. Forgive everyone who has hurt you in the past.

Get rid of anyone who is negative, complacent, or hopeless. Stop socializing with people who put you down. Their negativity will seep into your life and stop you from being successful yourself. So what has been stopping you from succeeding? Let us know in the comments. I am suffering from a terminal illness,,nd it keeps ringing in my head with every second that passes. Kindly advice me on what to do.

Hi Moses, Would you like to contact us directly and talk more about your situation? Perhaps we can guide you in the right direction.