Understanding and Earning Greatness

Every great person is virtuous but every virtuous person is not great. Having virtues is a personalised trait but being great is a social trait which is held by fewer persons with virtues. Thus, greatness of a person is measured by his/her contribution to social causes of upgrading humanity. Thus, a great person has a wider influence than a virtuous person.

In simple words, a great person does something appreciable to help improve human society by teaching ways the people must live as social elements. It is best teached through inspiring others by one's own lifestyle and deeds, following the proverb 'deeds are better than the words'. Thus, to earn greatness, one has to first regulate his/her own conduct in the society. This may be called 'investing in oneself' to be able to inspire the people.

A great person always looks at the future, because the yesterday is gone and nothing can be done to change it, today is running and shall pass away in te process of improvements in the society. So, the great persons works in present time to build a brighter future for the humanity.

Third trait of a great person is that he knows how the things actually work. Mere philosophical preachings may help a society but in the long run. So, the great person does what works in te present circumstances. For this the person has to be optimistic, however, this may not be possible under all circumstances.

Although, pioneers of society have always been single individuals, but even they need help of some like-minded persons, who work as precious resources for improvements. Wider influence is no individual's work, the pioneer has to branch out through like-minded persons.

Future is not merely the time. It is always constituted of persons, or the future generations. So an important task of a great person is to build up future generations as better components of human society.