If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.

The saying urges a shift from scale to quality: when circumstances prevent headline-making achievements, one can still act with excellence, care, and ambition in modest tasks. It reframes “greatness” as a manner of doing—attention, integrity, persistence—rather than the size of the arena. In motivational terms, it also counters paralysis and perfectionism: meaningful progress often comes from small, controllable actions performed consistently and well. The line fits the broader self-help ethos commonly associated with Napoleon Hill—emphasizing mindset, initiative, and disciplined effort—though the sentiment is more widely circulated than securely traceable to a single, definitive Hill text.