The Great Mystery of Genius
The relation between IQ and success follows the law of diminishing returns. That is, when you compare two people of relatively high IQs, you can no longer predict success by IQ alone.
While many theories were put forth, there was one common factor that researchers recognized in all great performers: they practiced so hard and intensely that it hurt.
The rule’s premise is that, regardless of whether one has an innate aptitude for an activity or not, mastery of it takes around ten thousand hours of focused, intentional practice.
First, that the seed of greatness exists in every human being. Whether it sprouts or not is our choice. Second, that there are no such things as natural-born under- or overachievers—there are simply people who tap into their true potentials and people who don’t. What is generally recognized as “great talent” is, in almost all cases, nothing more than the outward manifestations of an unwavering dedication to a process.
The opportunities presented to one are just as important to success as one’s own inherent talents and willingness to put in thousands of hours of work.
we can easily see that being in the right place (physical, educational, societal, or otherwise) at the right time can influence our destinies as much as anything else.
They’re often nothing more than chances to improve on something other people are already doing.
Opportunities are whispers, not foghorns.
Barrios then wondered if anyone could operate at a genius level—and achieve genius-level greatness—simply by learning and adopting the same educated views and disciplined behaviors that so repeatedly characterized history’s greatest achievers.
Do we take the path prescribed by our “now you’re supposed to” society, or do we take our own path toward the life we feel we ought to be living? Do we choose our life’s work based on the U.S. Department of Labor’s list of highest-paying jobs, or do we follow our bliss? Do we heed the call to conformity, or the call to adventure?
As the preeminent mythologist Joseph Campbell said, deep down inside, we don’t seek the meaning of life, but the experience of being alive.
Curiosity and the Greatest Genius Who Ever Lived
They must be willfully discovered and pursued. One must be able to find their clues—their invitations—hidden throughout a world that many people consider mundane, predetermined, or hopeless. This is a rare talent, one that relies solely on curiosity.
Da Vinci’s life and greatness is best summarized by his own statement that “the noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.”
He believed that “all our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions,” and thus preferred to approach science observationally, experiencing truth for himself, rather than theoretically.
His curiosity wasn’t a robotic desire to stockpile and categorize foregone conclusions, but a dynamic energy capable of absorbing, transforming, and purifying anything it touched.
“Science is the observation of things possible, whether present or past; prescience is the knowledge of things which may come to pass, though but slowly,” he wrote.
“I know that all knowledge is vain and full of error when it is not born of experience, and so experience will be my mistress.” Da Vinci knew that the pursuit of questions is far more important in the journey to greatness than the memorization of others’ answers.
Da Vinci’s boundless curiosity, love of mastery, and need for patronage also led him to the worthy challenge of engineering.
Your adventurous journey to genius requires a direction too. As with da Vinci, curiosity is how you’ll discover it. And be open to directions you’ve never considered before. Paths of greatness aren’t usually obvious.
And real success requires much more than a flash of curiosity in the brainpan—it requires an enduring interest that must be renewed daily despite the long, hard work that it takes to make something of significance, and the sometimes crushing blows of setbacks, adversity,
outright attacks, and many other reasons to quit.
The interesting person goes on a date with a girl and talks about his expensive car, his Salesman of the Year Award and all his money. The interested person compliments his date and asks about her family, her hobbies,
Without curiosity and interest in something meaningful, no important goals can be formed. No matter our potentials, if they aren’t willingly channeled to the pursuit of one knowable, worthwhile end, they diffuse.
Oscar Wilde once wrote that people have an “insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing.”
Lao Tzu warned us of this when he said, “Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habit. Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”
Da Vinci believed that knowledge and understanding could only be advanced through actual observation, the asking of simple questions, and the systematic testing and recording of what was observed.
“He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind,” he wrote.
Don’t assume that there’s no reason to look because everything is already known. Don’t assume that there’s nothing left for you to discover or add.
Our culture is making it easier and easier to disassociate from the natural itches of the mind and the real adventures of life. We’re left as degenerates, little more than purposeless, visionless drones that punch buttons for paychecks and punch remotes for instant gratifications that remind us we’re still alive.
Courage and the Cripple of Lepanto
Courage is the primary catalyst in the genius code;
No, every great organization or cause that is around today exists because someone had the courage to unleash who they truly were, to refuse to believe they couldn’t complete their journey, and to refuse to let setbacks defeat them. They tapped into their inner genius to unlock their full potential for greatness. “Success seems to be connected with action,” wrote hotelier Conrad Hilton, founder of the Hilton Hotels chain. “Successful men keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”
In each case, you’ll have two simple choices: give up or get tough.
They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy and the greatest of these is Confidence. When you believe a thing, believe it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably.”
He knew that fear is merely a byproduct of any courageous adventure. The word itself actually has this connotation built in.
Mark Twain said that courage is the resistance to and mastery of fear, not the absence of it.
The only thing to really be afraid of is not trying. Wilting in the presence of fear guarantees misery. That brings the death of dreams, which is, in many ways, the death of the individual.
Discovering your calls to adventure gets easier when you know their other name: opportunities. They’re problems that need solving, challenges that need conquering, gaps that need filling. Such opportunities exist wherever you look, waiting for people to adopt and nurture them into the products, services, and art that change the world. They’re flashes of insight and hints of possibility that stir in people’s minds when they connect two dots in a way that nobody else did before. You’re not looking for just any problems, challenges, insights, or possibilities, though. You’re looking for the ones that speak to you, even if nobody else gets it. They’re the ones that you just can’t resist. Invariably, those are the ones that produce the greatest rewards, both material and spiritual.
Lao Tzu said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Your journey begins the moment you take that first step. And as for the thousand miles ahead, who knows where it will take you or what the outcome will be? But in the end, you’ll know one thing: that you’ve been alive.
Imagination and the Man Who Invented the 20th Century
The philosopher Edmund Burke said “there is a boundary to men’s passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under the influence of imagination.” Imagination is the life force of the genius code.
“I know two great men and you are one of them; the other is this young man.”
Tesla was never one to chase recognition—he was after the pure thrill of discovery and creation. His imagination was a factory with unlimited resources, and the world an exciting playground with unlimited possibilities.
In time, these royalties would’ve made Tesla the world’s first billionaire. Instead, they enabled Westinghouse to save his company. Tesla’s selflessness was a testament not only to his generosity and goodwill, but his belief in his ability to continue to create his future.
Steve Jobs said creativity is “just connecting things.” Salvador Dali said “those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.” Picasso said “good artists copy but great artists steal.” Mark Twain said “all ideas are second-hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources.”
A creative genius is just better at connecting the dots than others are.
Read books, watch documentaries, and discuss your ideas with others. No subject, no matter how specialized or esoteric, is off limits. You never know where your imagination will find pieces for its puzzles.
It takes curiosity to find your call to adventure, it takes courage to venture into the unknown, and it takes imagination to create your path. And to, like Tesla did, create it exactly as you envision it, no matter how much work it takes, or how many people try to stop you.
Devotion to Goals and the Wizard of Menlo Park
“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the actions.”
Goals fuel action because goals give your adventure purpose. Only in purpose can you find the strength to cross the Rubicon and march toward greatness.
Einstein said that if you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.
The findings of the study were clear: writing down specific goals, working out specific steps to achieve them, and creating accountability for achieving them, and thus commitment, are very conducive to success.
When you survey the goals of great achievers like Edison and Curie, you’ll quickly notice something else in common. Their goals have a simple, defining characteristic: they can’t be easily achieved. The goals of geniuses are always big—the type that fills you with a peculiar mixture of excitement, intimidation, and restlessness. As Einstein said, you must “develop an instinct for what one can just barely achieve through one’s greatest efforts.”
become really, really good at something. Become extraordinary at it. Better than everyone you know. So good that people can’t help but be amazed.
You need a restless desire to figure out new, better ways to do things.
Write down your goals in as much detail as you can. He stressed the importance of writing the goals—not just thinking about them. Think about the goals as much as you can. Don’t be distracted off onto other goals or forget about the ones you’ve set. Learn to focus on exactly what you want and remain so until you’ve accomplished it. Don’t talk about your goals until you can show objective results. The reason for this is twofold: it prevents the fear of what others might think if you fail, and it prevents you from feeling satisfied with yourself by merely talking about what you’re “going to do”as opposed to actually doing
After ancient Greek armies landed on enemy shores, the first order commanders gave was “burn the boats.” The Greeks knew that the body can endure almost anything, but the mind needs convincing. And nothing steels resolve better than necessity, as Edison proved time and again. When there’s no option of retreat, humans are capable of incredible things.
The legendary football coach Vince Lombardi said that once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit. Every genius’ journey has brought discouragement, frustration, and distraction, but they just never used any of these things as an excuse to walk away. Their boats were burned.
Drive and the Macedonian Who Conquered the World
Alexander’s adamantine will and belief in himself stemmed from the fact that he was willing to out-plan, out-work, and outlast anyone. He didn’t chase dubious shortcuts, and in some cases, purposely avoided them just to experience the glory of overcoming a great challenge. He didn’t beg for the favor of the gods; he strove to overawe them.
sometimes a direct assault so audacious that nobody would dare attempt it. Nobody but Alexander, that is.
No great men or women, no matter how outwardly humble and gracious, are self-deprecating, diffident weaklings. They possess a rare concentration of intelligence and ability, and they aren’t ashamed to make it known, even if only by their actions. This self-confidence is often misinterpreted and denounced as shameless self-love, implying that the only way to be “acceptable” is to assume an air of tottering docility. The genius knows better, though.
Alexander’s exceptional ability to retain complete battlefield awareness even while engaged in combat himself detected the ploy and, consequently, the gap in the Persian front.
No matter the journey, one will always face opposition, whether in the form of competitors, enemies, meddlers, saboteurs, incompetents, and the like. The simplest way to defeat them all is to accomplish what you set out to accomplish. Don’t let them divert your efforts into undesirable directions. Don’t let them convince you that compromises are advantageous or necessary. Be like Alexander in your drive: show them just how dauntless and relentless you really are, and just as the sprawling Persian Empire did, with its millions of able-bodied men, they’ll lose their will to keep fighting and accept your ascendance.
“I would rather live a short life of glory than a long one of obscurity,”
Geniuses don’t work long and hard from a begrudging sense of duty—they do it because they have a strong desire to give everything they’ve got to a project and see it through to the best of their abilities. Ambition shows you the path to success, but drive is what gets you through it. “I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance,” wrote John D. Rockefeller. “It overcomes almost everything, even nature.”
Purpose is the primary fuel of ambition. Purpose creates a destination. We can only become fully engaged in life when we feel that we are doing something that really matters. Purpose is what inspires us, lights us up, and floats our boats.
“Great minds have purposes, others have wishes. Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune, but great minds rise above it.”
“There is one quality we must possess to win,” said Napoleon Hill, author of one of the best-selling books of all time, Think and Grow Rich, “and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.”
If purpose dies, the entire adventure quickly follows suit.
Where the goal is the what, the purpose is the all-important why. Purpose gives goals meaning. When the intention to make something happen is weak—when you’re just not feeling the “fire”—it’s not going to happen. People that ignore purpose don’t go very far in life. Nobody can love what they don’t feel in their hearts. The will to go on expires, soon or later. How excited are you to get to work in the morning? How much do you enjoy what you do for its own sake rather than what it gets you? And how accountable do you hold yourself to a deeply held set of goals?
People can become so preoccupied with just staying afloat that they fail to realize that nobody is at the helm.
As Howard Thurman said, you must find what makes you come alive.
In his own words, the most slavish thing was to “luxuriate,” whereas the most royal thing was to “labor.”
The journey to greatness requires that you fight the battle against Resistance anew every day by doing the Work. Drive compels you forward. If we are to learn from Alexander’s brilliance, you strengthen your will by clarifying purpose, getting into motion, and never relenting. And if we are to learn from Alexander’s greatest mistake, you retain your strength by never accepting anything less than the adventure you yearn for—your call to greatness.
Knowledge and the Gadfly of Athens
One of the first lessons that Socrates taught was the importance of self-knowledge. He believed that the primary source of confusion in any intellectual or practical pursuit, no matter how small or large, was the failure of people to realize how little they actually knew about anything, and that the “beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.”
and spirituality, driven by the belief that “the unexamined life is not worth living.”
Socrates believed that the more knowledge one had, the better he could act reasonably in life and attain happiness. Similarly, Leonardo da Vinci believed that the acquisition of knowledge is always good for the intellect as it helps drive out the useless things and retain the good.
He recognized that a great hindrance to our capacity to learn is not what we don’t know, but what we do know.
“thoroughly conscious ignorance is the prelude to every real advance in science.” Claude Bernard, who pioneered the use of the scientific method in medicine, wrote that, “those who do not know the torment of the unknown cannot have the joy of discovery.” Plato said that “the learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.” And Benjamin Franklin stated that the “doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.”
“Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.”
Einstein said that knowledge isn’t information—that true learning only comes from experience; that knowledge has a dynamic factor.
Socrates said that to find ourselves, we must think for ourselves. Such self-awareness is the path to individualism, the next powerful element of the genius code.
Individualism and the Virgin Queen
The more you push to discover your unique self, the more the world tries to make you the same as everyone else. There is but one universal antidote to this perilous tug of war: an unimpeachable commitment to individualism. A commitment to greatness is an inflexible commitment to independent thought and action. Individualism is a genius’ armor against the social pressures of conformity, criticism, and ostracism. If your armor—your dedication to being you—is strong enough, you can survive just about anything, just as Elizabeth Tudor did.
Nearly every great advance of mankind is an expression of passionate individualism—each began as one person’s idea, which usually was rejected by many as stupid, impossible, impractical, heretical, dangerous, or shameful. Newton’s first law of motion—the law of inertia—stood in direct opposition to more popular ideas of his time, and caused much uproar and debate.
Thoreau said the mass “never comes up to the standard of its best member, but on the contrary degrades itself to a level with the lowest.” If it weren’t for the indomitable individualism of history’s greatest men and women, who fearless championed their radical ideas and dreams, the human species would still be wandering the wilds, struggling against the crude forces of nature, mystified by the stars, and bludgeoning animals and each other with clubs and stones.
If you care too much about what other people think, say, or do, you’ll be pulled away from your path in every other direction imaginable. You’ll simply hand over your destiny to those you desperately seek approval from. Geniuses don’t fall into this trap. They are, as the Indian philosopher Osho said, “just a little more stubborn than ordinary people.”They just “go on hammering.”
“If the single man plants himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abides, this huge world will come around to him,” Emerson wrote.
The genius knows that self-confidence doesn’t come from always being right, but from not fearing to be wrong. The learning of a valuable lesson and the progression of your thinking and understanding can easily offset the temporary discomfort of realizing that you’re wrong. In fact, the best lessons in any endeavor and indeed in life are often learned through failure, and can only be learned that way. Sometimes a thousand words can’t convince you of something like a mere moment of failure can.
One of the simplest common denominators of every genius is their voracious appetite for learning. They place enormous value on books and reading, and on the pursuit of knowledge at large. They also found it incredibly easy to get interested in just about any subject, no matter how mundane or obscure it might seem to others.
Judgment and the Great Medicine Revolution of Ancient Greece
“Our senses don’t deceive us; our judgment does.”
Confucius said, “no matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.”
Use the research and conclusions of past geniuses as jump-offs for your own hypotheses and discoveries. This might lead you to forward the findings and philosophies of others, but don’t be afraid to modify or refute them in your own ways. As Einstein once said, “Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.”
William Butler Yeats, the Nobel Prize-winning writer and poet, said that education is “not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” As we saw with Hippocrates, it only takes one such fire to extinguish millions of shadows of ignorance, superstition, and deceit, and reveal to all the path to wisdom, reason, and truth.
Honesty and the Rapier Wit of the Renaissance
Socrates said the greatest way to live with honor is to be what we pretend to be. Individualism alone isn’t enough—honesty is the glue that holds it all together and gives you the strength to endure the worst the world can throw at you. And as you’re about to see, when the pressure is on in the journey to greatness is when honesty with others, and with yourself, matters most.
We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly—that is the first law of nature.”
“It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong,” he said.
Honesty with ourselves is also called integrity. It entails calling things as we see them and standing by our perceptions of right and wrong and true and false, regardless of what others think.
This unwavering loyalty to ourselves is the first lesson of honesty that we must embrace in our own journeys. We may not have to face the same pressures to conform or simply shut up as Voltaire did, but we will all have to face moments where we have to decide: do we make a prayer, grit
“Love truth, but pardon error,”
Ability to Communicate and the Pen of Revolution
No journey to greatness is traveled alone. Without the help of allies, the hero can never complete his quest.
Paine’s influence during this tumultuous period affirms beyond doubt that the ability to communicate is one of the most important traits of the genius code—if not the most important. Regardless of the many virtues one can possess, if he or she can’t clearly and persuasively communicate his or her ideas to others, no great impact is possible.
Indeed, our world has been shaped, and continues to be reshaped, by geniuses that have the courage and ability to communicate the inconvenient truths, radical awakenings, and civilizing reformations that banish oppression and corruption, and enrich our understanding, control, and enjoyment of ourselves, others, and the universe itself.
He said that ethos determines the audience’s first impression. By showing that you have good sense, a good moral character, or expertise or authority, you can quickly win your audience’s acceptance, just as Paine did with Common Sense and The Rights of Man.
References to science and history are also incredibly powerful persuasion devices, and can be used to establish yourself as an expert. By weaving science or history, or both, into your communications, you not only greatly amplify the credibility and authority of the message itself but also create the impression that you are intelligent, educated, and in possession of wisdom that most people aren’t. Formal
Another influential way to create positive ethos is to create the perception of similarity. We like people we perceive to be similar to us. Similar opinions, traits, backgrounds, experiences, lifestyles, etc.
Most people would like to believe that they weigh every decision in life rationally and only take action accordingly, but even Aristotle knew that powerful emotions such as anger, pity, fear, elation, admiration, and courage inevitably and radically, if subtly, influence our judgments.
“Forget about PowerPoint and statistics,” wrote the Harvard Business Review. “To involve people at the deepest level, you need stories.”
By including stories in your communications—personal stories, stories of others, or even fictional stories—you will gain open access to your audience’s minds and hearts. Stories can be used to motivate employees, teach your children a lesson,
So, when communicating, be conscious of the logical soundness of your arguments. Use agreed upon facts and statistics to support your inductive conclusions, and beware of supposing more than the premise indicates. Think your deductive conclusions through and ensure that they are necessary consequences of your premises.
Logic is meant to serve you and refine your observations, thinking, and communication, not haunt you with nagging doubts and “what ifs.”
Author and inventor Buckminster Fuller once said that you “never change things by fighting the existing reality.” To change something, he wrote, “build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” A cursory review of every great cultural advance in history confirms Bucky’s observation.
Optimism and Surviving the Times That Tried Men’s Souls
“Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success.” -Lao Tzu
“shallow men believe in luck or in circumstances,” and strong men “believe in cause and effect.”
Helen Keller said that optimism is the “faith that leads to achievement” and that “nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”
Optimism has pushed many geniuses through long nights, bitter criticisms, demoralizing failures, and the loneliness of being outside of the status quo.
Whatever our future holds will have a lot to do with what we believe it will hold.
When enough people begin to believe with certainty that things will turn out a certain way, their behavior evolves to match, and the outcome is all but guaranteed. Thus, it’s important to envision and share beautiful, believable, achievable visions of what can be as these too can convince people, which starts the process of making them true.
Well, we must first realize that, as writer and painter Henry Miller said, “by choosing to live above the ordinary level, we necessarily create extraordinary problems for ourselves.” This is as inescapable as any other law of nature—the farther you make it in your journey to greatness, the bigger the barriers you’ll have to overcome. The optimistic person is able to acknowledge this and meet problems, no matter how large, with equal vigor.
They expected hardship. They were willing to face the worst. They embraced the fact that the universe, in all its apparent tranquility, is a carefully balanced chaos of forces we barely understand. If we’re to bear upon its journey, we too must be a force of nature. Positive visions and convictions are the muses of optimism, but their inspiration is fleeting if not supported by a backbone of steel.
Your Invitation to the Brotherhood of Genius
The world desperately needs more geniuses, not more intelligent spectators or idle critics muttering in obscurity. Human problems are more complex and dangerous than ever, and we are regularly reminded how fragile the equilibriums of social, political, economic, and religious forces truly are. Humanity doesn’t magically survive by the grace of the Unknown; it’s borne on the backs of mighty individuals that are often misunderstood, fought, ridiculed, thwarted, and forgotten by most. But there they are, creating legacies that we carry forward every day.
“One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,” is how Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver described moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of purpose and connectedness in the world.
The only way to really be effective is to pursue greatness at a genius level. “You have to run as fast as you can just to stay where you are. If you want to get anywhere, you’ll have to run much faster,” Lewis Carroll wrote in Alice in Wonderland. The first step to becoming a genius is simply deciding that you are going to endeavor to do so. It’s a big decision to make and, ironically, is itself a moment of genius. It takes courage, individualism, honesty with yourself, optimism, and imagination to break from the lockstep of the “now you’re supposed to” society and join the ranks of the radicals who think for themselves, pursue lofty goals, and whose responsibility is indeed the survival of our species.
mistake—if humankind eradicates itself in one of the ever-growing ways available, it will be because our geniuses were too few, were too marginalized, or too disorganized.
If you worry you can’t make it or it will be too hard, consider this: Your mind, even on its dullest days, has a baffling computational ability that vastly outstrips anything we can hope to build. Your body, an impossible harmony of trillions of cells and one septillion activities, is engineered with such brilliance and precision that you’re free to ignore it. And you, with your ability to perceive, reason, and act, are the most sentient form of life in the known universe. In these ways, you’re already a reflection of genius. But will you live up to the spirit of greatness born into your every cell, and stitched into your soul?