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I pity really smart people who look back on their lives and think they have wasted it and lash out at circumstances which stopped them being great/constantly remind everyone how smart they are/hwo great they could have been.
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From what little I know you don't seem to do these things now. Are you worried about how it all turns out?
Historically, "being great" seems to be most reliably accomplished by putting yourself among motivated smart people and competing/cooperating with them in an attempt to impress each other. You (probably) won't be the smartest person in the room and some of your peers (not necessarily the smartest) will become great. When Feynman was a young hotshot he badly wanted to impress his elders at Los Alamos and outdo his rival Schwinger.
Alternatively, if you want to participate in something great, find someone with really good taste and go work for her. Writers for
The Simpsons said they wanted nothing more than to make George Meyer (the head writer in the early years) laugh. People who code or design to please Steve Jobs have a good situation in a similar way.
Isolated genius is a romantic fantasy. Groups of motivated smart people who compete/cooperate produce amazing things, from Bloomsbury to Silicon Valley. When you get a sense for what would impress you, find people who work hard to the highest standards at the same thing and spend time with them. If econ is this thing, Chicago is a great setup.
Have you seen this
talk by Richard Hamming?