In my humble opinion one of the greatest pianists was Van Cliburn. He was an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958 at the age of 23, when he won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow at the height of the Cold War.
When it was time to announce a winner, the judges were obliged to ask permission of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to give first prize to an American. "Is he the best?" Khrushchev asked. "Then give him the prize!
What Nikita Khrushchev liked the most about Van Cliburn was his genuine humbleness. It's amazing to be the best in the world at something and to not believe one's own press.
A surgeon that was going to operate on my father was going over the last minute details with my dad just before the surgery. My father said, "Have you done many of these operations before?" The surgeon, known to be at the top of his field said without missing a beat, "I watched a video on it last night." My dad understood. This surgeon took his job very seriously, but he didn't take himself seriously.
The true masters of their fields are like that. If you have to tell someone you are great at something, you probably aren't.
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