The Thing About Native Genius

Roughly a month ago, I devoured a book called “Multipliers: How The Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter” and one of the chapters discusses this concept called native genius:

A native genius is something that people do, not only exceptionally well, but absolutely naturally. They do it easily (without extra effort) and freely (without condition).

Finding someone’s native genius is like getting the Super Star in Super Mario. Once you find that native genius and match that person with a role that fits them like a glove, it suddenly unlocks all this discretionary effort in someone and they start pulsing rainbow colors. They can do extraordinary things without breaking a sweat.

To me, that is a beautiful thing. The magic bullet for human potential. This — THIS — to me has been my singular passion in life. To find that elusive key that liberates someone and unlocks his or her inner gift. Growing up, films were the keys that unlocked me, which is why I’m so obsessed with creating films for others. Masterfully crafted keys, built to enter the minds of people, and open them to things they never knew about themselves and the world.

It also explains why I’m obsessed with tech, which — as tasks become more automated and people are freed up to be not only more productive, but more creative, citizens of society — provides people more time and more creative, collaborative platforms to access and develop their potential.

But there is a caveat to this:

Native genius can be so instinctive for people that they may not even understand their own capability.

Which brings me to my current dilemma: How do you know what your native genius is? The book provides a series of general questions to guide the way: What does the person do better than anything else they do, better than the people around them, without effort, without being asked, and readily without being paid?

It turns out that it’s actually kind of hard to figure out someone’s native genius. Because native genius isn’t about a job (e.g. being a great plumber), or even about a specific skillset (e.g. excellent manual dexterity). It’s about why someone’s particularly good at doing something. Maybe it’s because they like troubleshooting, or more specifically, restoring integrity to the machines that make people’s lives comfortable. Maybe it’s why, even without you asking, your uncle drove your car to the auto parts place to get your tire replaced because the thread was too thin. Maybe it’s why he’s the first person to look for a napkin when the table at the restaurant is a little too wobbly.

Another clue to the discovery of “native genius” is in looking at the tilt of their conversations. Regardless of topic, when you’re talking to someone, what does your conversation with them naturally “tilt” to? When faced with a problem, say — a mouse in the house that eludes capture, no matter how many mouse traps you use (an outdated household matter, but bear with me here)? Do they eventually start:
- Coming up with a multitude of creative ways to trap the mouse?
- Empathizing with the mouse to see where the creature is “coming from”?
- Empathizing with you to see where you are coming from?
- Grabbing rat poison and go directly to the mouse hole to snuff it out?

It’s a constant process of inquiry. I personally haven’t quite cracked my own “native genius” code yet, because whatever it is, it’s something I do so effortlessly that I can’t even see it. My StrengthsFinder test ranked ideation as my top strength, which explains why I have accumulated 30+ Moleskine notebooks in the past 8 years to write all my thoughts and ideas down, but why? Ideation is such a broad strength. I specifically like understanding individuals and crafting things that unlock them. So maybe my native genius is figuring out other people’s native genius? But if I was so good at that, I wouldn’t know it, much less be writing an article about it.

There is something reassuring about a world where everyone has the capacity to transform into Super Mode and release crazy amounts of potential. And until then, it’s a journey to find out what it is.