The Secret Principles of Genius

by I C Robledo

  I believe working on tough problems can become like a drug to the genius mind. Geniuses often get used to dealing with tough problems early on. They are either quick to take them on, or sometimes other people are quick to go to them, because it is understood that this may be the only person who can solve it. The brilliant mind doesn’t shy away from these difficult problems, and in time through repeated exercise of their problem-solving abilities, they become masters at solving them. Instead of a drug user needing harder drugs, the genius mind requires tougher and tougher problems to work on, to feel that they are making true progress. Through this pattern, they can reach a point where they are working on problems few other people would be able to solve.

  For example, Albert Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, when published, was understood by very few people. Many scientists even protested his findings, believing them to be wrong. Yet his theories have astounded us for their continuous accurate predictions. As discussed in the National Geographic article “Einstein May Be About to Be Proved Right – Again” this is the man who revealed light to be both a wave and a particle. He taught us that space-time can bend, which is more common around massive objects like the sun. He also showed that time is not a constant. It can slow down or speed up, depending on levels of gravity or matter. More recently, in February of 2016 Einstein made headlines when scientists at the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) found gravitational waves (described as ripples in the fabric of space-time), which were predicted by Einstein’s theories. He was such an advanced problem-solver that we are still proving him right even a hundred years after he first proposed his groundbreaking theories.

  If you found Einstein’s predictions hard to believe or understand, you should know that so have many other people. Yet he has been proven right time and time again. He reached this point by consistently challenging himself to solve tougher and tougher problems. But keep in mind that he was doing this from a young age. For example, even in his youth he was known for developing thought experiments in his own mind about light, time, and space. He didn’t just wake up at 40 and decide to tackle the universe’s biggest problems.

  Benefits of the Principle

  If you look to the works of great masters in history, such as the paintings of Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci, or the music of Rachmaninoff or Bach, or many other such masters, it is supremely clear that they rose to a great challenge. They were not interested in the easiest path. They did not back down from performing at the highest standard they possibly could. In the end, the benefit that we all enjoy is in their masterful works that have stood the test of time.

  When you set a challenge for yourself that puts your abilities to the test, at first it will be extremely difficult to accomplish. You may even be unsure if you can succeed at it. But if you do press on, and through great effort complete the challenge, your abilities will grow. Soon enough, what used to be challenging will no longer seem so difficult. This is the technique many geniuses use to rise above and stand out. They pursue only the greatest of challenges. Many of them aren’t interested in doing something if they are absolutely sure they can accomplish it without much effort. They want that challenge, and they accept the uncertainty of whether they can accomplish it, because they know this is how intellectual growth happens.

  How to Apply the Principle

  Focus on your ideal level of challenge

  The exact challenges you face will of course vary depending on what field you choose to work in. But either way you will want to pursue the ideal level of challenge for yourself. This can take some practice to figure out. It will depend on your current abilities, and on how much energy you have to work on difficult problems or in difficult situations.

  To find your ideal level of challenge, first you should start with a challenging task, but not necessarily a larger goal that may take months to accomplish. The best situation is if you can choose a task that will take you a day or less to complete. You want a high level of challenge, but not so high that it becomes impossible or completely unrealistic to do. The right challenge will be different for everyone. If you are a beginner, you have to be careful not to choose something too difficult. And if you are highly advanced, you have to be careful not to choose something too easy.

  One way to help get to an ideal level of challenge is to alter the time limits that you allow yourself to do a given task. If a task normally takes you eight hours to complete, you can attempt to do it in six, for example. You may look for ways to speed up your progress, avoid wasting time, or look for unnecessary steps that can be eliminated.

  Stretch your abilities

  Another way of challenging yourself is to offer to work on tasks that are above your current level. Don’t stretch so far above your level that you have no understanding of what you need to do, however. Look for opportunities where you understand the idea of what needs to be done, but you don’t necessarily know all of the details involved. It helps if you can find someone at a higher level that you can assist. That way, you can learn and challenge yourself while not feeling too pressured if you are unable to complete the task on your own. Remember, the point is to challenge yourself, so avoid asking questions on every minor detail. Make an effort to find solutions for yourself.

  Secret Principle #5 : Turn Your Vision into a Reality

  “All of our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”

  – Walt Disney, American entrepreneur, animator, voice actor, and film producer.

  Geniuses Who Applied the Principle

  Walt Disney, Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Vladimir Nabokov

  Description of the Principle

  When you have a vision, you will see in your mind’s eye a completed magnificent project, perhaps all in a flash. But it will be so vivid that it will be as real as day. Imagine holding the Mona Lisa in your mind before it was actually created, every last detail. It exists in your mind, and you feel that you must share it with the world. Or imagine holding Disney World in your mind, seeing the children happily playing among the rides with Disney characters all around. You see it so clearly, the joy and laughter of families visiting from around the world, that it seems ridiculous to not create it, no matter what it costs you. Other people may not understand. They may even think you are foolish when you decide to create something on such a grand scale. But in your mind, it will already be complete. It is just a matter of executing the process to turn the vision into a reality. It seems foolish not to create your vision. This is what it means to have a vision for the genius mind.

  Geniuses often have a very specific vision of what they wish to accomplish. They know what they want, and they aren’t willing to compromise on it. Brilliant people tend to look for the best people who can help turn their vision into a reality. They may listen to criticisms, but in the end will have justifications and insist on doing things the way they imagined them. You have to understand that by the time a brilliant person has a vision, usually he is at the peak of his field. Anyone offering advice isn’t likely to have as much experience. In the end, the people who disagree or don’t understand the vision will either need to come to agree and understand, or leave the project altogether.

  The origins of a vision are hard to pin down, even for the brilliant minds that have them. It may actually be the result of a great deal of experience in a field, a deep intuition, and partly it may be something the genius wants to see brought to reality for their own personal fulfilment. This principle can be difficult to grasp if you have not experienced it yourself. But this is something that has been a reoccurring theme for many of the world’s brightest minds.

  Benefits of the Principle

  Steve Jobs, the founder and former CEO of Apple, had the vision for a series of products he believed would change the way people received their information and sought out entertainment. He had a strong vision of his product ideas and their place in the future. Because of this, he wasn’t concerned with what specific p
eople said they wanted Apple to design. Jobs told Businessweek “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” And he proceeded to show it to them. First, he released the Apple Computer. Then he had the vision to see that people wanted to carry much more than a CD’s worth of music with them, and they wanted it to be portable, so he released the iPod. After that, he foresaw that the iPod would eventually become irrelevant as phones would soon have the ability to carry music, and people would want to do everything on a single device. That is when he started working on the iPhone. His visions were right time and time again. When a vision is accurate, and based on experience and deep understanding, the benefits can be immense.

  Turning a vision into a reality, or attempting to do so, can be the biggest project of one’s life. It will require money, time, resources, expertise, assistants, and so forth. This can be a massive challenge, but the benefit is that it can also be the biggest learning experience of a lifetime. It is important to see this through to the end to be absolutely certain if the vision will work out as expected. Another obvious benefit of a vision is that if you manage to execute it and be successful with it, you will end up with a fantastic work of genius that countless people can enjoy or use in some way.

  How to Apply the Principle

  Focus on gaining mastery

  The best way to apply this principle is not to make an attempt to have a vision. By their nature, they will happen when you have gained sufficient mastery, when you understand what you are doing so well that there are few people more knowledgeable than you in your specific area. You will likely feel that you know what you are doing so well that what you do, whether it is play piano, scientific research, or design buildings, is actually an extension of yourself. You no longer clearly separate what you do from yourself. When you reach that level, you will begin to know things intuitively. You won’t need to calculate and think deeply about every single problem that arises. You will have so much experience that your intuitive grasp will allow you to understand situations rapidly, based on seeing so many patterns over many years. At that point it is more likely that you will experience a powerful vision.

  Consider the risks involved

  This principle will be one of the most challenging ones to apply. Although it has been used successfully by many brilliant minds, you should take some caution with the principle. Given that visions tend to be in depth and require large amounts of time and money, it is important to consider the possible downsides. You should at least think them through and decide if it is a risk worth taking. This is a principle where we may hear about people like Steve Jobs and Walt Disney, but it is likely there are others who pursued their vision at all costs, and ultimately did not succeed in their efforts, and so we have never heard about them. Keep this in mind and weigh the pros and cons of pursuing your vision. Ask yourself if the time is right.

  Secret Principle #6 : Embrace Your Uniqueness

  “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”

  – Henry David Thoreau, American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, historian, and a leading transcendentalist.

  Geniuses Who Applied the Principle

  Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, F. Buckminster Fuller, Andy Kaufman, Jackson Pollock, Henry David Thoreau, Leonardo da Vinci

  Description of the Principle

  Great minds in history tend to not place too much importance on following conventions. Whether they are social or workplace conventions, the genius is much more likely to approach problems in his own way. They either lack fear of being seen as different, they push through the fear, or they may even find pleasure in being seen as different. Often, from a young age they tend to think in unique ways, and approach problems and situations in a different way than others would. But they also come to realize that just because they do not do things in the same way as others, doesn’t make them wrong.

  Geniuses may appear unconventional, possibly even eccentric or quirky. Sometimes, though, a bright mind is able to see much more of a problem, or further into the implications of a problem, than other people. A brilliant mind may choose a path no one else even realized existed. This is a part of what it means to be a genius, to see options that other people may not even have considered as being an actual option.

  A reason for such uniqueness can be that the genius has something on the mind of such a high priority, that all other things no longer matter. Being fashionable, socially graceful, or even eating and sleeping on a normal schedule, may all seem unimportant when someone is working on big problems and feels they must be solved.

  For instance, according to Time Magazine, Buckminster Fuller, an unconventional thinker and inventor, experimented with polyphasic sleep – or sleeping throughout the day, taking 30 minute naps every six hours instead of sleeping all at once at night. Although he probably didn’t care what people thought about it, he eventually stopped because it conflicted too much with the schedules of his business associates.

  Another strange example, according to 20th century history expert Jennifer Rosenberg at About.com, is that Albert Einstein did not wear socks. It seems he found them unnecessary and uncomfortable. Or, you might remember him more for his unruly and wild hair. However, keep in mind that brilliant people don’t usually make it a goal in itself to be unique. Instead, they have other more important goals, and in order for them to make the most progress, they end up doing things that are much different from the norm.

  Benefits of the Principle

  Thinking unconventionally can be helpful because it allows us to be less limited. When you open up your thinking to ways that seem forbidden or closed off, you give yourself more options as to how to handle problems and find solutions. Thinking in such ways can spark creativity and help with making breakthroughs.

  You may have noticed that instead of doing things in a new, interesting, or unique way, people often do their tasks in the same way, again and again. Often enough, they are instructed to do things this way by their teachers or bosses, for the sake of efficiency. However, it can be a competitive advantage to find unique ways to do tasks that still provide a good solution. It is always possible that a different way of doing something is actually a massive improvement over the usual way that it is done. This is essentially what it means to be creative. People who are more open to approaching problems in new ways are often the ones who are more likely to make a great discovery. They do not concern themselves with the many limits most of us are automatically restrained by. And this helps them to see more options, and to dare to be different, and ultimately to make a brilliant breakthrough.

  As an example of the benefits of being unique, consider Jackson Pollock, the abstract expressionist painter, famous for his drip-style painting technique. Historians have also called this style “action painting”, because the paintings are created by making brush strokes in the air, while the canvas lies on the floor. According to the Khan Academy course offered by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), “The Paintings of Jackson Pollock”, this occurs through quick and fluid dance-like motions. They are not created through brush strokes made on an upright canvas, which is the way most paintings are made.

  Pollock created art in a way other artists had never even considered. He not only created new paintings, but he also created his own artistic form, rather than sticking to conventions. Part of his ingeniousness was that his paintings were unexpected and counter to what we would normally view as art. But he perfected this original technique and created masterful artwork with it.

  How to Apply the Principle

  Find people who will embrace your uniqueness

  Fear is something that can limit your ability to think in unconventional ways. Fear of saying something unacceptable, something that doesn’t sound intelligent, or something that is rejected as being ridiculous. A way to help alleviate this
fear of thinking differently, or being different, is to seek out a group that is very open to new ideas and different ways of thinking, a group that actually encourages this. That way, it will feel more natural and safe to come up with your own unique ideas. You will not have to fear the responses of anyone. For example, considering how much time we spend at work, you may want to pursue a work environment that is open to new ideas, new ways of thinking, and doesn’t look at these things as a problem or something to be avoided.

  Practice thinking in unique ways

  To think more uniquely, you can practice building up unconventional thoughts. For example, think of two random words, such as ‘rock’ and ‘plant’. Don’t worry if they are related or not, just think of two different things as fast as you can. Then try to think up how the two objects or concepts may be related. Encourage yourself to think outside of your normal ways of thinking. Your responses do not need to be completely logical. If you would like, you can take a moment to think up a few examples of how ‘rock’ and ‘plant’ are related, and then see how they compared to mine in the following paragraph.

  Did you come up with some ideas? Here is what I came up with. As an example response for ‘rock’ and ‘plant’, both are things that don’t move on their own. Also, both are things that can be used for decoration. As an outside the box example, Robert Plant was the lead guitarist for the musical group Led Zeppelin, who played a type of rock music. This is a more interesting response, because both the use of the word ‘plant’ and ‘rock’ are not the ones that usually first come to mind. You can also turn this into a game or contest with friends if you wish, to see who can come up with more unique and interesting responses.