There can be no “it” without risk. Any great thing we do must have risk involved. And even the very concept of risk (especially of failure) is itself an assurance that we are considering something worthy of a child of God.
In other words our ultimate nature must come to bear on this discussion. Who are we really? If we are merely temporary creatures here only for a blink in time to somehow serve a future we can never participate in then life almost seems cruel.
We are cogs in the machine, here only to serve a system. We have no ultimate meaning or purpose outside of that temporary function. OR, really are eternal. We are not done at the ceasing of our breath, we merely transfer to another dimension.
Existence then has layers. Many! And the life we live now is on only one plane of that existence. But what we do here matters in other planes. And more importantly, who we are is rooted more deeply than in what function we happen to perform.
This perspective assumes there is some sort of will to the universe. If we are eternal and eternally part of something bigger than ourselves than there is a bigger story being told than just ours. We are not the ultimate author.
Not that our lives are scripted nor that we have no real freedom. We do. But that somehow our struggle, our desires, our hopes are made sense and given meaning in the context of this greater story. Our “it” only makes sense in this light.
Obviously if there is a greater story being told, and I believe there is, we are not going to be perfectly able to know that story. For while our longings are eternal, while our souls may even be eternal, our bodies are not. We are limited while in this body.
Our perspective is even limited by our bodies. Yet we have this awareness of something greater than ourselves. We have this awareness of a greater story going on. And to the extent that our story aligns with that story we have something special.
Will we know when that is happening? Not exactly. That is the beauty and mystery of life. We don’t know what is going to “hit.” We don’t know what things are going to take off and inspire others. We don’t know what things will produce a return.
We try. Trying is our domain. Trying is our story. Succeeding is the domain of the greater story (and therefore perhaps the greater story-teller). What hits the nerve of a culture at just the right time is something no human can control.
Of course there are many “successful” people in the wake of such a hit, but wrongly most assume credit for the success. “Success has many fathers.” Really many who take credit for the success of something are merely following its trail.
Success has one author, and He may not live on this planet. In the meantime we are not absolved from trying. Keep sowing. Keep planting. Keep, in some cases, harvesting. Do whatever life serves you with grace and a smile.