The easy solution for that is to not care if you're "in the stratosphere". Being too ambitious is setting oneself for failure and then for cynicism (because, by definition, only a few people can make it to the top, so your odds are very bad).
I'm just a regular guy like everybody else, but I don't envy people like Sam Altman or Paul Graham in the slighest. What they (in terms of money and success, influence etc.) have is just not that interesting to me, I'd much prefer having two more hours of good focus per day, than having a billion dollars (or however much they each have) - you can do much more interesting things with focus than with money.
I'm just a regular guy like everybody else, but I don't envy people like Sam Altman or Paul Graham in the slighest. What they (in terms of money and success, influence etc.) have is just not that interesting to me, I'd much prefer having two more hours of good focus per day, than having a billion dollars (or however much they each have) - you can do much more interesting things with focus than with money.