My guess is that the vast majority of the people who are trying to change the world would be better off trying to adapt to the situation they're in, both in small areas (e.g. someone who hates the fact his friends smoke would be better off not hanging around them when they smoke or just accepting it, rather than berating them and trying to get them to quit), and in big areas (e.g. someone who is extremely upset about injustice in the world would be better off carving out their own small niche in which they can do a small amount of good, rather than trying to alter foreign policy to save the whole continent of Africa). And when there are times when one person can do a whole lot of good in the world, it probably looks much more like "having an idea no one has had before and causing a ripple effect" than "molding the world to your will".