I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.
Many things are improbable, only a few are impossible.
I realized that a methane-oxygen rocket engine could achieve a specific impulse greater than 380.
Nobody wants to buy a $60,000 electric Civic. But people will pay $90,000 for an electric sports car.
When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.
The space shuttle was often used as an example of why you shouldn't even attempt to make something reusable. But one failed experiment does not invalidate the greater goal. If that was the case, we'd never have had the light bulb.