The Thing About Genius

Thanks to the world of helpful writing I found on Medium, I learned one thing that will go on to profoundly affect the way I work, see the world, and live.

There is no mythical genius. There’s just hard work.

Bold statement coming from one who worships the legend behind names that roll off our tongues whenever the word is tossed around. Jobs. Mozart. Einstein. Fuller. Gates.

My recent reading immediately after recovering from a despairing episode led me on a path of self development the likes that Steven Covey’s words could never inspire. It started from a programmer’s blog named 30sleeps. This guy made me realise how much of life just happens, and how much of it relies on our own deliberate effort. That’s the word that stuck with me: deliberate.

You’ve heard and doubtless read it several times over. It’s become banal, uninspiring, cliche, but take a new look at this: our world is the sum of all our deliberate effort. We are in charge of the outcome. When things don’t work out the way we wish them to, there’s only one person to turn to and hold responsible. Ourselves.

Obviously considering life’s nuances shatters this idea, but let’s stick with it for now because this is important.

Back to the question of the myth of genius, one falsehood I’ve held up is that it comes naturally and some people are just good. That may be true in many respects. There is such a thing as natural talent. I am well endowed enough to know the advantage it brings to the table. But talent is latent. It’s potential. Talent is not what changes the environment, shapes thoughts, improves the world in some way and generally inspire the myth that is genius. Talent just cannot do that.

One author on Medium I started reading cited a “study” that ended up proving that most of the world’s creative geniuses had this time in their life that was marked by underexposure and most importantly, hard work. The fruits of these years emerged in fame, fortune and the rest goes on and on. But that’s the key there: hard work.

Sticking to my romantic ideas about genius permitted me to appreciate my varied talents and groan with despair that I could never amount to much because of reasons I need not go into. It took a massive shift (after several years of fruitless agony) for my mind to shift into this new perspective which may be normal to most of you.

If you come from my world, you will understand how massive this change is. And I have experience to confirm that this idea that genius really is the fruit of plain old hard work is the better way to live.

The Sledge Hammer Kind of Life

I started a 30 Day Trial on writing and my worth ethic. I write two pieces of short fiction each week, every Monday and Thursday. I stick to this no matter what. It’s easy to do things when you’re inspired but when things get tough, when schedules are rigid or you just aren’t inspired, what do you do?

Inspiration is for amateurs. Geniuses show up and get to work.

This attacked the fundamental of my earlier work ethic. As one friend aptly put, whenever I’m uninspired my work is shitty. Several projects I’ve started have been left half-done because I lost inspiration and moved on to other things.

That quote above changed all that. Last night I had the pleasure to overcome creative block by ploughing through despite it. By sticking to my 30 Day Trial, I had no option but to write. It just had to be done.

After the first few paragraphs, I wrote myself into a knot. I had three characters almost completely seperate, exploring their worlds from their points of view. I did not know what to make of it, but somehow the story had to resolve.

I ended up with something I could not even make up if I were so inspired. In the end (I cannot give it away) I wrote a paranormal story about a demon who posesses people in dire situations. I felt like a genius.

I don’t know how things will end up in the future, but one thing’s for sure. I can have whatever outcome I desire by working hard for it. That’s the only way up.