Surrounded by Genius

"Follow your genius closely enough, and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour." - Henry David Thoreau

I have been fortunate to work with some of the brightest talent I have ever met. Part of my career included several years as an instructor of New Media and I met a great many talented people. Some I had the privilege of teaching with, others were my students. I have even been able to work with my former teachers. All in all, I have met some people with gargantuan talent.

Thoreau's words resonate for me because I have discovered something. In order to follow your own personal genius, you must first know it. I equate genius with talent. I think most people would agree that those people who are credited with genius in a particular field also had that difficult to define thing that few others have. I don't think I have ever met a genius who wasn't passionate about their field. With every great talent, I have also discovered that they know what they are talented at and what they aren't.

My wife told me about an article she read recently where a painter, who was applying for a grant, was asked to write an essay about his art. His reaction was, "I am a painter! If I could write an essay to inspire you, I would be a writer! Asking me to write about painting is like asking an architect to do a dance about architecture." Follow your genius, but first figure out what your genius is. How many of us are continually asked in our work lives to excel at something we just don't have a talent for?

I just finished reading the wonderful book "First, Break all the Rules." In this book the authors define talent as "a recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behaviour that can be productively applied." The idea here is that great workers have something they do that makes them great at their job. Just like the talented artists I know.

While I was working for a telecommunications corporation, I met someone who had a gift for fact gathering and information research. This was a great thing because I have a talent for taking information and organizing it into a cohesive whole. I hate research. I can do it, but I just don't have a passion for it like I do assembling a bunch of facts into a cohesive whole. This couldn't have pleased my co-worker more, because he hated trying to put the facts into a narrative. If it were up to him, everything would be bullet points.

As a result a partnership was born. This is another thing that is described in "First, Break All the Rules." Great managers and great workers don't bother worrying about fixing what they aren't good at, they find a partner who can excel in the areas they don't. Jobs & Wozniak, Gates & Allen are a couple of popular examples of this kind of partnership. In my home city, a hugely successful entertainment computer gaming company, Bioware, was formed by a partnership.

With this in mind, it is possible to not only look for and recognize the genius in yourself, but also the genius that surrounds you. Every person you meet, including the hotel cleaning person, is a genius at something. The authors of "First Break All the Rules." use the cleaning person as an example. They identified cleaning staff who excelled at their job and interviewed them. They found that those people who excelled had a passion for what they did, did it very well, and stood out. They had a "talent" for their job. This can be said of any profession. Lab technicians, real estate agents, call centre workers... you name it, there is a way to excel.

On a personal level, I saw this in action recently. I hired a company to build my garage. They were amazing! The garage was built in one day. I chatted with the construction team a bit, and they LOVED what they were doing. They were motivated and self-managed. They worked so well as a team they behaved like a well oiled machine. When the inspector came to review the work he took one look and asked who built the garage. I told him. He replied with, "they're the best."

It is rare that I meet someone who has acheived genius in an area and isn't passionate about what they do. They know their stuff inside and out. On a technique level, they can dance circles around everyone else, except other geniuses. Da Vinci experimented with different types of paint. Kurt Browning loves the mastery over every muscle in his body where to the point that he doesn't have to think about technique. Talent and technical mastery go hand in hand.

Knowing your talents, recognizing genius in those around you and partnering with those who are strong where you are not or don't want to be. If you can manage to put these things into action, you will be on your way to genius.