How To Become A Genius In Your Field
By Anubhav Srivastava. (Register For His Workshop – Super Confidence For Super Success)
How To Become a Genius in Your Field? Everybody wants to be a genius. Because being a genius comes with its perks. Society respects you. People look up to you with admiration and envy, even if you are a nerdy genius! Most people think being a Genius is a God gifted trait, something you are born with. I am here to tell you that everyone has the potential to become a genius? How you say? Here is how
Know that you are a potential genius
First things first, everybody is a genius. And by that I mean everyone. Let’s shatter a misconception that being a Genius is limiting to scoring high on an IQ test. It’s not! Traditionally society calls a person if they have a high IQ. The IQ itself tests very limited things such as arithmetic, logical reasoning, spatial perception etc, language skills etc.
It is tragic that in our world, the definition of a genius is usually only measured in terms of these narrow set of skills. The truth is there are several forms of intelligence. The one who has great aptitude in swimming is a potential genius in swimming. Someone who has aptitude in music is musically intelligent and so on. You can see how intelligence extends to almost all skills in life.
Obviously everyone in the world is good at at least one thing right. And by practicing that thing over and over again, they have the potential to become a genius at it. Thus, everyone in the world is a potential genius. If you are reading this article to score better on an IQ test, sorry but this article cannot help you with that. It will however, give you some tips on becoming so exceptional, original and pioneering in one field that your contribution makes you a genius in that field!
Identify Your Strengths
Identify what you are good at. You don’t need to be a megastar at it, at least not in the beginning but you do need to have some aptitude in the thing you are trying to pursue.
Einstein said everyone is a genius but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb the tree it will go through its entire life thinking its stupid
What is the Fish’s strength? It is swimming. It cant climb trees, it can’t even survive out of water. But put the same fish in water it rules the water kingdom.
A penguin does not look too remarkable. Its wings are too small, it doesn’t even have knees, worst of all it can’t even fly. It seems like such a pointless creation of God. And yet the same penguin transforms into an incredible creature when it does what it is talented at, which is swimming. It is ten times more streamlined than a Porsche and incredibly efficient. In an energy that is the equivalent of one litre of fuel, it can swim 2500 km! What a wonderful creation of God it actually is ! The truth is we are all wonderful creations who are incredibly talented in one field but spend our entire lives in the wrong field and suffer with low self esteem as a result. When you follow what you are truly passionate about and good at, you will realize how amazingly special you are. There is no one like you!
So first things first, identify your strength. You don’t need to be remarkable at it, you just need to be have considerable aptitude.
Put in the Practise
Then put in relentless practice over and over again to get good at it.
Another amazing way to become a genius if you have aptitude is relentless practice. Just keep doing. Just keep practicing. Be willing to work harder than everybody else IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.
How many of you follow football. Cristiano Ronaldo the great footballer was considered an average talent while Wayne Rooney was considered a far greater talent. But Cristiano’s will was far greater and through sheer hard work and a desire to win, he became a greater player than Rooney.
The same is visible in cricket. Nobody knew of Virat Kohli back in 2007. While Rohit Sharma was already in the Indian T20 team. During the time Rohit Sharma was rated as a far greater talent than Kohli. But Kohli through his immense determination and relentless practice became one of the great geniuses in Cricket Today
The will built the skill! While it is the skill that makes you competent enough to perform the activities you wish to do, it is the will that ultimately determines how far great you become. Someone with great skill and no will is destined to rot away. But someone with average talent and a strong will has the potential to be great! The will to win makes them put in the thousands of hours of practice to hone their skills and eventually their skill becomes as extra ordinary as their will!
The Road To Being Is Through Doing
One ways to get good at something, especially creative works is to just keep coming out with content over and over again, a lot of it will be junk but in the process you will learn so much about your craft that you will come up with a work of genius sooner or later.
Let me tell you a few stories about some of the most famous geniuses you may admire.
Thomas Edison the great inventor is known for the Light Bulb, Sound Recorder, Alkaline Battery etc. But do you know that he invented over 1093 other thing in his life time, most of which were of no commercial value and have barely been used?
Albert Einstein, the science genius famous for the Theory of Relativity. That work made him a legend along the likes of Sir Isaac Newton. But do you know that Einstein published over 200 other papers which were never given that much of public importance?
Pablo Picasso, the legendary artist came up with 20,000 other pieces of art in his lifetime, most of which did not quite attain the level of fame and appreciation that he is associated with.
Richard Branson started over 400 companies and yet he is mostly known for the success of Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Records and Virgin Mobile.
It is clear that most of these geniuses have come up with tons of work, that is mediocre, at least by their standards. But because they continue to keep producing something or the other, sooner or later they come up with something that is truly the work of a genius and will be remembered for a long long time.
If you want to be a genius, just get started by doing.
Geniuses in any field have spent at least 10,000 hours in practising or honing their skills in that field before they were truly recognized as greats. Thus keep practising and producing work. Much of it may not be great but you are sure to become a genius in your field through the sheer amount of time you spend producing work, one after another. In the sea of the immense work you do, you are sure to find a few gems that are truly remarkable and establish you as one of the greats of your field.
Be with the right kind of people.
Associating with the right kind of people is extremely important for success and to become a genius in any field. There is a saying which mentions that you are the average of the 5 people you spend most of your time with. The reason is that attitudes are contagious. If you associate mostly with people who are lazy, non motivated and pessimistic, you are likely to become more like them. If you associate with people who are driven, ambitious and focused, you are likely to become more like them even if you did not have any of these traits previously.
Naapoleon Hill, the famous author talked about having a mastermind group, it was basically a group where like minded people met regularly and discussed their goals and plans. They bounced around their plans and sought advice from each other. Some of the most successful people in the world have mastermind groups, whether inspired from Napoleon Hill or not, at the end of they their success is a result of collective wisdom.
However sometimes due to a lack of time or not being in the right circumstances, it is not always possible to physically meet people with whom you can learn and share. In this case you should use the power of the internet and either connect with these people virtually or read their books, blogs, watch their videos and do everything else to learn from them or interact with them. Surely it is no replacement for real world interaction but if you are spending most of your time even learning from people who are driven and focused, you are likely to progress towards being a genius yourself.
A final factor that plays a tremendous role in whether or not you realize the genius within you is having the right environment while growing up. This is largely out of your control, but consider yourself very lucky and be grateful if you do. Here is a beautiful story I read about the role of Edison’s mother in making him a genius
One day Thomas Edison came home and gave a paper to his mother. He told her, “My teacher gave this paper to me and told me to only give it to my mother.”
His mother’s eyes were tearful as she read the letter out loud to her child: Your son is a genius. This school is too small for him and doesn’t have enough good teachers for training him. Please teach him yourself.
After many, many years, after Edison’s mother died and he was now one of the greatest inventors of the century, one day he was looking through old family things. Suddenly he saw a folded paper in the corner of a drawer in a desk. He took it and opened it up. On the paper was written: Your son is addled [mentally ill]. We won’t let him come to school any more.
Edison cried for hours and then he wrote in his diary: “Thomas Alva Edison was an addled child that, by a hero mother, became the genius of the century.”
Conclusion
Becoming a genius in your field is fairly simple, although it is FAR from easy. The first thing you need to understand is that being a Genius is not at all limited to intellectual prowess in academics. You can be a genius in any field if you become a master in it.
Second, it is a common misconception that Geniuses are born, not made. That is just not true. Now that being said, it does not mean aptitude plays no role. Surely, we are all blessed with inherent talents and have the potential to be geniuses in fields where we do have talent and passion. So the second step is to identify what you are good at and begin honing your skills.
Then, find the right group. Remember you become the average of the 5 people you spend most of your time with. If it’s not possible to meet in person, then connect with such people virtually, but do ensure you spend time learning from them.
Finally, practise, practise, practise and keep putting out a lot of work, if you are in a creative endeavor. It takes immense, focus and determination to develop your skill to such a level that you can be called a genius of your field. Even intellectual geniuses such as Edison stated that Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. Albert Einstein said “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
Being a genius is a skill that needs to be developed like a muscle. Work on your craft like a man possessed, but in the right direction. Keep working even when others want to waste their time, be so passionate about your craft that it becomes a near obsession. Sooner or later that obsession will pay off! Geniuses are not called mad without reason! 😉
About the Author
Anubhav Srivastava is an author, speaker and the director of Carve Your Destiny, a first of its kind inspirational documentary featuring some of the most famous personalities from diverse fields. It has been seen by over 1 Million People on Youtube. Anubhav has also been featured in numerous International and India Media outlets such as BBC , The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Rediff.com, Leicester Mercury and many others.
For one on one consulting or a motivational workshop at your organization please email anubhav101@gmail.com . If you would like to write a guest blog post on Anubhavsrivastava.com you contact me on the same email address.
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