You don't have to be a hero to accomplish great things---to compete. You can just be an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.
Interpretation
Great achievements don't require extraordinary qualities, just determination and effort.
Edmund Hillary emphasizes that anyone, regardless of their background or status, can achieve remarkable things if they possess the motivation to pursue difficult goals. It highlights the importance of determination and the belief that ordinary individuals can compete and succeed in their endeavors.
In practice
During a motivational speech to youth about pursuing their dreams.
I think I mainly climb mountains because I get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. I never attempt to analyze these things too thoroughly, but I think that all mountaineers do get a great deal of satisfaction out of overcoming some challenge which they think is very difficult for them, or which perhaps may be a little dangerous.
Despite all I have seen and experiences, I still get the same thrill out of glimpsing a tiny patch of snow in a high mountain gully and feel the same urge to climb toward it.
I've always hated the danger part of climbing, and it's great to come down again because it's safe.
Even when you're 50, you can make the effort to improve your standards.
Many people have been getting too casual about climbing Everest. I forecast a disaster many times.
I am a lucky man. I have had a dream and it has come true, and that is not a thing that happens often to men.
Everything is easy when you are busy. But nothing is easy when you are lazy.
I don't play with a lot of finesse. I usually play like I'm breaking out of jail!
Champions keep playing until they get it right.
You can't have a hit every time. The main thing is to keep on working and not be afraid to take risks. It's better to do something that's not perfect and successful every time. It's important to be fearless and move forward, to learn from what went wrong.
Good tired, ironically enough, can be a day that you lost. But you wonβt even have to tell yourself, because you knew you fought your battles, you chased your dreams, you lived your days. And when you hit the hay at night, you settle easy, you sleep the sleep of the just, and you can say, βTake me away.
Only he who gives up is defeated. Everyone else is victorious.
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