two individuals; acts and ends

Once upon a time, someone remarked to me that "It's ok to not be the best, but it's not ok to not want to be the best." This statement puzzled me. I wanted to understand what the difference would be, in terms of actions undertaken, between such an individual and one who held simply that "It's not ok to not be the best." Now, this investigation is a little detached from understanding the actual individual involved. Requiring that the difference appear in terms of actions undertaken may be doing violence to the claims in terms of what it is ok to be. Nevertheless, this is the spin I intend to give the question.

The answer, I think, appears when we look at cases where the individuals can't be the best - where they have no viable route towards being the best. I want to say that, in such a case, the second individual's principles no longer provide any guidance. If there are no means to our ends, then those ends cannot guide our actions. On the other hand, I think the first individual will, as it were, keep on keeping on. Sure, first place appears to be out of reach, but let's say that competition for second is still open. Which more closely instantiates the goal of trying to be the best: gunning for second, or throwing in the towel?

The point of this discussion is to illustate a broader point about the sorts of ends we can set for ourselves. The second individual has what I want to call a singular end. There is only one state of affairs which is desirable (being the best). And as it happens, the world can thwart one's pursuit of that end: circumstances might occur such that there is no longer any way from here to there, no means to that end. You can't even pursue that end anymore. On the other hand, one might set oneself what I'll call a general end. The point of a general end is that it can be instantiated in a number of states of affairs. The world can't thwart one's pursuit of a general end; sure, circumstances might change, but this just prompts the question: which of the options open to me best insantiates that end / is the best means to the best available instantiation of that end? (I don't at present know if ends are clearly delineated into two categories, singular and general, or if we should rather say that some ends are more general than others (i.e. there is a continuum - are there endpoints?)).

I started the discussion by stipulating that I wanted to look at this issue in terms of actions undertaken. This is because, I think, the business of human life is action. Despite what one might think, there really isn't anything to do but take action; there really isn't any question but "What shall I do next?" And, as I hope the above example makes clear, I think that general ends are better suited to answering that question than singular ones. We can't overcome a certain general skepticism about the world; we can't be sure that we won't be confronted with situations totally unexpected. And if we don't have our values in order, then things may go badly for us. Put another way: how contingent on the world's good behavior do we want the state of our souls to be? Do we want faultlines revealed in moments of crisis, or do we want to figure out how to live well now?

(This topic actually has a lot to do with the stuff regarding Diamond mentioned previously, I think. It has to do with coming to grips with the fact that we are, in certain ways, finite creatures.)