To be Great or not to be Great

Greatness! It’s something everyone wants to achieve and the nice thing is that we all have talents and we are all pretty good at something. So how do we take what we are good at and take it to GREAT??

According to Sonia Simone, author of “3 Steps to Take Yourself from Good to Great”, it actually take just 4 easy steps to become great, just 4 things to remember to achieve greatness. “Four steps, I can do that.” Piece of cake. Sonia, in all her brilliance, condensed the impossible to possible, by taking a colossal task and overwhelming idea, finding the main points and giving you the ecstasy of simplicity. Our attention is caught by her empathy and understanding. By using the classic ‘we’, we are drawn in. It has a stunning effect. We find ourselves nodding in sympathy as she describes the falling economy and horrors of the business world.

Sonia expounds on trying to help the great mass of us who are trying to fight the harsh conditions of the economy, specifically aiming her article at small business owners. Money has always been something that causes people heartache and worry. It’s a connection between reader and writer. Despite the specified audience the article can help anyone who wants to grow, I’ve chosen to relate the steps to me as an individual, the article is more helpful to someone who is trying to make a little cash.

The first step is to “Find out what you're better at than anyone in the world”.

Sonia has already made a connection with her audience and appeals this time not to our need or even our sense of intelligence but more to our sense of humor. Gently and lightly she laughs at our initial panic at hearing the first step, and continues to joke about the kind of things we can be good at. The soothing mood gives us the impression that it's easy. We are thinking, "This is no big deal, I can do it." After our confidence has been built and ideas start whirling through our head and plans start to form from Sonia's incitement, she firmly warns us about the difficulty of the task in the last paragraph. "Becoming great doesn't happen in one night, you've gotta stay motivated." or along those lines. I smiled when I read that, it sounded so much like something my mom would say. Something that I would roll my eyes at and exasperatedly reply, "I know, mom." But of course, I don't really.

The second step is to find something that people will actually appreciate. Sonia is focused on business owners so she applies it to ideas that customers would want to buy. It's a little harder to apply to individuals. This is where she lost some of her readers I think, (although her introduction to the paragraph is priceless) not all of us care about businesses or are planning on running one. What she does do well, is voicing worries, thoughts and reality that will hook those who are interested.

The third step is to care about whatever it is you are trying to become great at. This is the real challenge, the nitty gritty. All throughout the article Sonia has sympathized and kept a light and teasing tone. Here, she has to start the same way. In order to keep readers motivated, she makes the impossible seem possible. We are told that we are going to have to work our tails off but do we really believe it? This section is dedicated to trying to get us to understand that we won't get anywhere without real desire.

She doesn't drive this home hard enough. I don't believe her. I don't understand the extent I'm going to have to work. I’m going to be Johnny Raincloud for just a moment. Why do you think greatness is so sought after? It’s practically impossible to get! The difference between an expert musician and an intermediate one is thousands and thousands of hours of practice. Our mind set doesn’t help us at all either, all through school we’ve done the bare minimum or pretty close to it, never the full ten miles that we could’ve done. “Why should we blaze a trail when the well-worn path is so inviting?” (From “Louder than Words”) It’s a daunting task, one that will take our entire lives to get even close to.

Because she's been using a jesting tone the entire time, her warnings although sincere have little effect. It's hard to balance, she has to sacrifice some of the confidence instilled in her readers to convince them of the difficulty. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme that’s foolproof. Sonia does an excellent job in letting us believe in ourselves. She utilizes pathos, examples that the average person would understand and appreciate, making us laugh at our own stupidity at times. It’s also clear that she cares; she wants to help those who are struggling in the economy or even with personal trails. That sincerity is what makes an article the most effective, not verbose linguistics and complex philosophies.