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.
When on the brink of complete discouragement, success is discerning that...the line between failure and success is so fine that often a single extra effort is all that is needed to bring victory out of defeat.
My best skill was that I was coachable. I was a sponge and aggressive to learn.
If you paint in your mind a picture of bright and happy expectations, you put yourself into a condition conducive to your goal.
Average is very acceptable in our society but I don't think the angels are applauding. If you are determined to be excellent, to not back out of it, you will reap a harvest in your life.
If wanting to win is a fault, as some of my critics seem to insist, then I plead guilty. I like to win. I know no other way. It's in my blood.
Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
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