Of late, I have been getting this vibe from the extraordinary achievers, who are regarded genius in their own field, due to the contribution they made in their respective areas, that there is nothing called genius. Word genius, which is mainly associated with one being incredibly brilliant with high Intelligence quality.
Recently, I read a quote by Thomas Alva Edison, that, “genius is, 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” This line coming from the person who, himself is one of the most prolific inventor of our time; with 1,093 invention that has patent registered in US, Germany and France.
I do remember, reading a story, when I myself was young, about this very genius inventor of our time. When Thomas was young, he was so curious and inquisitive to find out, how hen hatches eggs ? So, one day, he took several eggs - about a dozen or so - and put it in a makeshift nest and sat down on it; to find out how they hatch ? I let you use your imagination to guess, what happened next. Once he responded, to those who thought, he have failed in many occasions, he told them that, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
So, now it does not surprise me about his take for the word, genius. Just a couple of weeks before, I was watching the interview of N. R. Narayan Murthy, one of the richest man listed in Forbes with more than a billion dollars earning. He is a self made man and first Indian to lead a software company to Nasdaq from India. At one point during the interview he said, quoting Yogi Bear; “harder I worked, luckier I became.”
There were gymnast from China during Beijing Olympic, who gained international popularity overnight, just at the age of fifteen. But as I was watching CNN some time later during that time, they revealed the secrets of those perfectly performing gymnast on the beam at that kind of young age. In China parents have to submit their young child in the hands of coach[s] at the age of 5 - 6, and their training session starts from then onward. Therefore, should it surprise us the result after ten years ?
Jackie Chan is a somewhat daredevil, because he does all his movie stunts on his own without the help of body double, as its known in Hollywood for the action movies. No international insurance company, will take the risk of insuring him, because of what kind of stunts he does, he says in his interview; because, there is nothing, he has not broken yet in his body parts, while doing his stunts for movies. But martial art is his biggest strength, which gave him the international name, fame and secure place in Hollywood movie industry. But before becoming the world famous name in Hollywood or Hong Kong, he had spent his training days in one of those Chinese martial art school for ten years, and his training started, when he was just seven years old.
UK, top selling writer of Harry Potter series J.K. Rowling may have become international sensation after the wizard series, but, she has started writing at the age of five and her first story Rabbit was filled with interesting characters.
Most of the TV chefs today, including Nigella Lawson, whom I watch on my TV sets, fell in love with cooking when they were small and their affairs with food and cooking started, when they were too young to enter in the kitchen. Yet, they did what they loved and today they cook for us on our TV. Their grandmother were their favorite person at home, when they were young.
Reading Rich dad Poor Dad gives us the clear cut idea, that training should start very early in life, in every thing and the writer of the book Robert Kiyosaki's own training lasted 30 years, until he was thirty nine years old; in his quest to become rich. Remember, his father was PHD holder and working as a high ranking position in Government office yet he choose his best friends father as his mentor.
World most richest man Warren Buffet, who is famous for his knack in share market investment started buying share at the age of eleven and he kept buying ever since, which made him not just billionaire but richest man who joined hands with another richest man and genius like Bill gates to donate huge chunk of of their earnings to various charity.
Most of big stars in Hollywood and Bollywood started their career when they were very young. Oscar winning actress Jodie Frost, started her career as a child artist and Daniel Craig [the current James Bond] whose latest movie skyfall, became the highest grossing of all Bond movie in its 50 years history, started his acting career at the age of six.
Although, Tiger wood is trying to make it to the top again after his fall from grace, but just a couple of years ago, he was the first man to hold the highest number of PGA trophies; his training has started at the age of three and his father was his coach. Today we know him one of the greatest golfers of our time.
In the music and entertainment worlds, known as King of Pop, Michael Jackson, has joined his Jackson 5 band, when he was young and performed on stage, when he was just eleven years old. He had started singing and dancing from very young age. While watching a movie based on real life story, about a Latin singer Selena, gives us more hope that some people with proper training and coxing at very young age can live a dream of their parent’s unfulfilled dream. Whatever the case is, training started early and young to become a huge singing sensation when she was in her 20s.
Today, in the Hollywood industry, there are so many actors and actress and who made it to the stardom also, are second, third or fourth generation of movie stars of yesteryear's. Their parents were in movie industry from that long. These new generation stars grew up watching, what their parents did and dreamt of becoming one day, as big as their parents or grandparents. Their ‘day dream’ became a reality after years of observation. But on the other hand, if you think otherwise on this matter, my earlier post on Its all in the Blood will help you to see it, from a whole different angle.
So it seems that early training from very young age, proper guidance, hard work and patience that help us to see green grass converting into milk, is what makes a genius not that high I.Q. which distinguish one from other.
However, there is one more core thing, in all this that we need to understand, when Thomas Alva Edison sat down on the eggs to see, how it hatches; he was not judged or scolded by his sister, who came to see him doing that. Michael Jackson had all family members, who loved singing and performing in front of public, therefore had huge support from all of them. Tiger wood, Jackie Chan, Selena had their fathers to encourage them in what they were doing. Warren Buffett’s father ran brokerage company. But JK Rowling, Daniel Craig were self inspired to get into what that wanted in life. N. R. Narayan Murthy, those young Chinese gymnast and Robert Kiyosaki were inspired by their teachers/ mentors approached to be interested in what they aspired.
So, its more important in life; to find out what you love and want to do and keep doing what you want to do. But it would be a lot better, if you find those support and encouragement at your home. Start early and keeping doing what you love doing and one day someone somewhere will call you; you are genius !
Another genius of our our time, who was on the top of list of 100 most influential man in the last century, as compiled by TIMES, Albert Einstein says, “everybody is genius, but if we judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend it whole life believing its stupid.”
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Note : This post was already published in nepaliadvocate.com
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