make one's mark

X is also the traditional signature of an illiterate, so it is both precise and general: anyone can use it to make one’s mark.

"It tends to feed this notion of infamy seeking - and a desire to make one's mark in history," he says.

But it is sometimes a little difficult to make one’s mark, isn’t it?

There I shall have a position and an object; and one may be of some use, and make one's mark in a new country.

He "began to see clearly what life is, and how difficult it is to make one's mark amid all this army of schemers, beggars and imbeciles who besiege every vacant post."