I leave the office slightly earlier than usual, and I look forward to my evening swim when the clouds overhead darken. As I prepare to wear my swimming trunks, I notice small drops of rain start to fall. At first, it’s only a drizzle but then the tiny droplets transform into much bigger ones. I quickly pull up my chair, roll up the window blinds and start watching the rain splash down onto the pool, the surrounding tiles and the garden outside.

The rain continues to fall, and I ponder on a recent book I read, the biography of Nietzsche–I Am Dynamite! by Sue Prideaux. For all his genius Nietzsche died not only not having not achieved any of his ambitions, but he also lived the last 11 years of his life in a mental asylum.

Life is truly heartbreaking. Many of us don’t achieve our dreams; we suffer from the day we are born till the day we die. It’s like we start full of love and hope and then slowly life drains away all our love till we end up feeling out of love of ourselves and the world.

Nietzsche through his many illnesses and madness still found the focus and thinking that would go on to inspire generations of thinkers, including Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Herman Hesse, long after his death.

Most of the extraordinary people are very much like us, ordinary for 97% of their lives but the difference is that they become extraordinary for the remaining 3%.

We might struggle with our lives and we may not emulate some of our illustrious heroes, but we all somehow leave our imprints onto the world.

However, all we need to do is intensify our focus and raise our game for some of our living hours—3% of our lives—to etch our names in history. Just like Nietzsche, Freud and Hesse.