is a complete person. Competence and academic achievement, which form the basic level, is a given. It is when the other levels - the very human levels - reach their top forms that we know the person is truly great. It's no point being good at your work, or being highly qualified to do a particular kind of job if you are arrogant, in that, you think you are the best and that everyone around you isn't worth anything... You believe you are the best - which you are - but you make that the basis for judging people and even those who you call friends are not exempt from your digs...digs that make them look poor in front of your achievements.
I believe that the most important sign of greatness lies in how you treat those around you....especially those who are close to you - your family and friends. If you are lacking here, then it really does not matter how intellectual you are, what a great job you hold, that you have been entrusted with highly sensitive material because of your special skills.....nothing but nothing matters if you cannot be nice and pleasant to those around you...
Can you sit in the last row and sit through all that is going on at a meeting or conference without getting impatient, or passing judgment, or itching to stand up and give your expert point of view?
Can you come down to the level of the junior-most person in your place of work and make him/her feel good and important about what they know and what they do?
Can you work in a team taking each member's inputs and weaving your knowledge through it, without trashing anyone's point of view?
Can you be in a gathering and not feel the need to be recognized and adulated?
Can you be gentle and kind and nice to those who are not as privileged as you?
Can you talk gently and quietly and politely to everyone alike?
Can you accept the fact that there is something to learn from everyone?
Can you, from your vantage point of education and achievement, see the good in everything and every person?
We may not all be the most brilliant but we certainly can be the best sort of people...