William Goldman was one of the most successful Hollywood screenwriters of all time. He was the creative genius behind scripts for The Princess Bride and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, among many others. In total, he had nearly three dozen scripts produced, which is remarkable by anyone’s standards.

In his funny and insightful book Adventures in the Screen Trade, he famously said, “Nobody knows anything. Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.”

This is a vital truth to understand not just in the movie business, but any creative endeavor, including writing. The truth is that nobody knows what is going to work. There is no set standard about what constitutes a great movie, a great book, or a great anything for that matter.

Whenever writers get together, we sometimes talk about the successful ones as “great writers.” Maybe you have friends who have written books and you consider them “great writers” because of their success.

But what does it mean to be a great writer in a world where nobody knows anything? How do we quantify and measure success, much less hope to achieve it?

Greatness means that you accomplished what you set out to do. It means identifying who your audience is and serving them well. It means being consistent with your writing and making it a habit.

When you reframe greatness, it is completely within your reach. You and you alone get to define what it means for you to be a great writer. Travel your own pathway and live by your own definition of greatness.

Because at the end of the day, nobody knows anything.