The Secret Principles of Genius

by I C Robledo

  Secret Principle #7 : Operate at the Highest Standards; Strive for Perfection

  “If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery – isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.”

  – Charles Bukowski, German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer.

  Geniuses Who Applied the Principle

  Charles Bukowski, James Joyce, Prince Rogers Nelson (the late singer-songwriter, more commonly known as just Prince), Marcel Proust, Nikola Tesla, Leo Tolstoy, Leonardo da Vinci

  Description of the Principle

  A common theme among geniuses is that they place high demands on themselves. They aspire to do the best work they absolutely can, and they consider it unacceptable to fall short of this. The brilliant mind is usually focused on something he views as extremely important. Because of this, he tends to be much more driven than most people to meet the highest standards possible. The genius will do anything to set up the best possible conditions to produce the best work. This could mean finding just the right materials for a piece of artwork. It could mean taking extra time when writing a novel or nonfiction book, getting inside the characters heads, or traveling to real life places that the book is based off of. It means doing whatever it takes to create a masterpiece.

  This principle drives home the point that to produce a genius level work is not something that happens with little care, effort, or investment of time and money. It doesn’t happen by accident. The genius is often one who commits to the highest standards, and does this not just occasionally. It won’t happen just on one project because the boss said it was important. Instead, this is a personal quality that the brilliant mind will always carry.

  A mistake people often make is to think that they are in a part of life where what they are doing does not matter much. They think they have little impact with their work, and do not expect much from themselves. This is not the mindset that the brightest minds will have. No matter the situation, they will tend to look for ways to be the best. When you have this approach of doing the best work that you can, even when the task seems trivial, you will soon be given tougher tasks, greater responsibility, and bigger rewards. And even if you aren’t, your mind will be working at a higher level. You may notice details that can be improved. Maybe one day you will have the opportunity to set up your own business that competes with the one you are working for now. If you have truly done your best, and tried to always improve at your work, when you have the opportunity to rise to a higher level, you will be prepared for it.

  Benefits of the Principle

  Let’s discuss Nikola Tesla, the Serbian American inventor and engineer best known for his work on the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system. In his autobiography titled My Inventions, he mentioned how he once started reading a book written by Voltaire. Whenever he started something, he felt that he must finish it. To his dismay, he realized that Voltaire had written 100 full volumes. Tesla felt that since he had started reading one volume, that he must finish all of them. This is how perfectionistic he was. He did end up reading them all, but it was unpleasant for him because he knew it was a distraction from his work. He felt such a strong need to complete the things he started, that he didn’t feel he had any other option than to finish the 100 volumes.

  You might think that actually, this section is supposed to be about the benefits of the principle. Interestingly, it seems like a negative that he was so perfectionistic he could barely control it. On the other hand, Tesla had so many brilliant breakthroughs and discoveries that surely his thoroughness and perfectionism in his work helped him in life. For example, according to a report titled “Nikola Tesla’s Patents”, by Snežana Šarbohhe, he reportedly held 116 original patents in 26 countries. If his standards had been lower, he probably wouldn’t have been the brilliant genius we know him to be.

  When you place high standards on your work, you are much more likely to produce top quality work. Half of the battle to greatness is just to pursue it, to commit to it. Those who do not even attempt it will never get there. After you commit to top level work, you are much more likely to build upon your skills. By pushing and challenging yourself, you will be learning new things, expanding your abilities into new areas. Many people show up to work, but geniuses truly put in the work (Principle #9), and in doing so they help themselves to reach a higher level of knowledge, understanding, and performance.

  It is important for you to understand another key benefit of this principle, that greatness attracts greatness. When you commit to working at the highest standards, and refuse to lower them, you will begin to attract other brilliant minds. They may become interested in helping you or collaborating with you in some way, helping your skills reach an even higher level. You will find that brilliant minds are the best to challenge you, and to push you to do even better work. There is always the chance that you meet strong resistance, if they prefer to approach the work in a different way than you. But keep an open mind. There is always something you can learn from other brilliant people.

  In a lesson on how greatness can attract greatness, consider the late musical artist, Prince. In the Hollywood Reporter article “Prince’s Performance Perfectionism”, Patrick Whalen, Prince’s former production manager made some comments about Prince. He said, “He always demanded the best”, and “He never settled.” Whalen also mentioned that when he first began working for Prince, he was asked to create a specific lighting effect for one of his shows. Whalen immediately told Prince this wasn’t possible. Prince looked him in the eyes intensely, and Whalen couldn’t believe what he said: “So what you’re telling me is that in the one second it took you to say ‘no’, you left your body and exhausted every possibility?” Whalen stammered back, “I’ll get back to you”. He never made the mistake of saying “No” to Prince again, and because of it, he expected more from himself and grew in his own abilities too. The lesson here is that the great ones who demand only the best will attract a similar energy, helping to elevate themselves and those around them to an even higher status.

  How to Apply the Principle

  Expect more from yourself

  A simple way to apply this principle is to practice expecting more from yourself. Think about the bar you normally set for yourself in your work and in your life. Set it higher. If you feel more comfortable, you can raise the bar a little bit, then raise it again, and repeat this over and over. In time, you will eventually be pursuing an extremely high standard. Expect better performance from yourself, and you can achieve it.

  Review your work

  Also, when you do finish a job, don’t be so quick to mark it as final. Do a last review of your work to see if there are any corrections you could make. Much of the time, we are in a hurry to get things done so we can move on to the next task. Sometimes you have to stop and think that if the task you are doing is important, then it needs to be done right. You need to check the work. And if it isn’t important, why are you doing it in the first place? It is either important enough to do it right, and check the work, or it isn’t important enough to be done at all.

  Always do your best

  Whatever work you are doing, even if it is not something you are especially interested in, you should take it as an opportunity to practice doing your best work. It is easy to do your best when you are working on something you love, such as a hobby. But the true test is to do your b
est when you would rather be doing something else. Keep in mind that the tasks you work on are probably important for someone. This could be your boss, a client, or for yourself. You should aim to do work you enjoy and are interested in, but if occasionally you find yourself doing something you would rather not do, practice doing your best work anyway. Of course, if you repeatedly find yourself in situations doing work and tasks you don’t want to do, it may be time to make a change.

  Secret Principle #8 : Persevere in the Face of Obstacles; Don’t Give Up

  “It is no good getting furious if you get stuck. What I do is keep thinking about the problem but work on something else. Sometimes it is years before I see the way forward. In the case of information loss and black holes, it was 29 years.”

  – Stephen Hawking, English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge.

  Geniuses Who Applied the Principle

  Jane Austen, Ludwig van Beethoven, Miguel de Cervantes, Marie Curie, Fyodor Dostoyevski, Albert Einstein, Temple Grandin, Stephen Hawking, Helen Keller, Isaac Newton, Marcel Proust, Ben Underwood

  Description of the Principle

  It is one thing to challenge yourself, or to pursue a high standard, but it’s another when you are dealt with obstacle after obstacle, and kicked down no matter what you try. Eventually, this can become tiring and demotivating. After too many troubles, it is likely that anyone would want to give up and quit. The difference is that the genius mind will often refuse to quit, no matter what kinds of obstacles there are.

  For example, at 21, Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neurone disease or Lou Gehrig's disease. It would gradually destroy his muscles, paralyze him, and it was expected to kill him within two to three years. Somehow, defying all of the odds, he is still alive at the time of this writing (2016), at the age of 74. I believe part of the reason he is still alive is because he was unwilling to allow the disease to take over him without fighting it. He was unwilling to give up. He always continued to work as a theoretical physicist, even when he could no longer speak or control his movements. He has also been greatly helped by technology, which allows him to communicate. If you have heard him speak, his voice now sounds electronic, because it is with the aid of a computer.

  Consider this example of his perseverance. A few years after his diagnosis, his muscles were clearly weakening. It had become a huge feat for him to even walk. He had a flight of stairs in his home, and even as his muscles were atrophying, he would climb them. He refused help from others in this. It took all of his energy and willpower, but he did it. It is very fitting that one of the brightest minds of our times would have that much will to persevere despite the obstacles. Clearly, he has taken a similar approach in his scientific life as well (e.g., see quote above). No matter what obstacles came his way, whether intellectual or physical, he always fought through them, and didn’t allow them to defeat him.

  When life hands us challenges that seem too tough, it can be instinctive to back up and look for an easier way. On the other hand, the genius does everything in their power to persist, to fight, and to make progress even in the face of major obstacles. It is a misconception that everything comes easily to the genius. The greatest geniuses of all history are often people who persisted through many obstacles, and in that process came to a deep understanding that surpassed their peers. Remember that if a brilliant person appears to understand everything easily, it is most likely through much preparation, largely through persevering even when the obstacles seemed too big to overcome.

  Benefits of the Principle

  When Bobby Fischer (former World Chess Champion) studied chess, he came to realize that many of the greatest chess books were written in Russian. You should know that the Russian players were known to completely dominate chess at the highest levels. To give you an idea of their level of domination, they had schools for children dedicated solely to learning chess. And top players were funded by government programs so they could dedicate their lives to it without distraction. The USA had nothing like this. Chess in the USA was a hobby. In Russia, it was their national pride and a way of life.

  The problem was that Bobby Fischer was not from Russia. He was from the United States, and he did not know Russian. While most Americans had no access to the treasure trove of information in these Russian chess books, Fischer decided he needed to learn what was inside of them. He wanted to be the best chess player in the world, and to do so he understood that he needed to learn from the best resources. And they were written in Russian. Fischer decided to study the language seriously. He was so committed to chess that he was willing to struggle through learning a new, unfamiliar language, just to improve his game. He studied the challenging foreign language, whereas most other top level chess players never even considered it.

  Ultimately, it paid off for Fischer. He became the best player in the world, defeating Boris Spassky to win the World Chess Championship in 1972. He proved that he could beat the Russians at their own game, and no other American came even close to his ability. Sooner or later, his kind of perseverance pays off. I should note that Bobby Fischer stopped playing the game professionally after he won, and therefore he lost the title quickly. His accomplishments were highly impressive nonetheless. Many people believe he was the greatest chess player who ever lived.

  Persisting and moving forward even when there are difficult obstacles, like Bobby Fischer did, is obviously not easy. This is why most people look for the alternative path. They search for an easier road. And that is fine, but it is not the path to genius. When we commit to doing something, no matter the challenges that come our way, we become much stronger in our intellect, our understanding, and our abilities. We move forward on the path to genius. Keep in mind that the brightest people will often seek the most difficult challenges. They are not worried about obstacles. In fact, they look forward to them. Brilliant minds understand that the benefits of obstacles and hardships are too great to ignore. The genius will be uninterested in a path without obstacles. The easy way is not what they are after. They are after the advancement of the mind and true understanding.

  Where many people are shortsighted is that they will see an obstacle that seems impossible, and its difficulty becomes all that they can focus on. They build it up in their minds to be even bigger, more worrisome, and fearsome than it truly is. By focusing too much on the problem, it becomes bigger and bigger. The brilliant mind, however, recognizes that it is possible to overcome the obstacle. They become determined to show that it can be done. They focus on the possible ways to solve the problem, not on how impossible it seems to deal with. When you persist through obstacles, and do so repeatedly, you will begin to acquire an aura of genius. Things that appeared impossible to others will be completely within your grasp. Your reward will be that things which once cost you much strain, will now appear to come from you as if without effort.

  How to Apply the Principle

  Reframe obstacles as opportunities

  Again, here we have a principle that seems easy to apply, but can be difficult to do so successfully. This is because most of us don’t want to deal with challenge. It is a natural part of human nature to want to do things we are already good at. This is where we feel comfortable. On the other hand, it is uncomfortable to try to overcome an obstacle. Here is an idea to help you tackle obstacles more comfortably. We have to retrain ourselves to see obstacles in a new way, so we can make true progress on them rather than feel overwhelmed. When you see an obstacle, forget that it is a problem, and something that needs to be overcome. Instead, look at this as an opportunity. Don’t think about how tough it is, how impossible it is, and how ridiculous it is to even try it. Instead, think about the rare opportunity you have to truly challenge yourself, learn, and grow. Think opportunity, not obstacle.

  Create your own obstacles

  The best way to prepare ourselves
for obstacles is to get used to overcoming them regularly. If you get used to solving tough problems, dealing with tough situations, and getting through them, then you will be much better prepared to deal with obstacles that are truly big. Others will have no idea how to handle them, because they aren’t used to it, and they are likely to be frightened or too stressed to take the best course of action. The geniuses are the ones that handle obstacles that are so large hardly anyone else, even experts, can fathom dealing with them. Even if there are no obstacles in your life, create them. Make tasks harder than they are supposed to be, in order to be prepared when a true problem presents itself. Consider this training, so you are always ready for the next big problem.

  Secret Principle #9 : Put in the Work

  “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

  – Thomas Edison, American inventor and businessman, owner of 2,332 patents.

  Geniuses Who Applied the Principle

  Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Bobby Fischer, William Shakespeare, Nikola Tesla, Leonardo da Vinci

  Description of the Principle

  This principle may seem obvious, but there is a persistent obsession with the genius mind, as if this were all it took to be truly brilliant. The mind, of course, is important, but do not make the mistake of overlooking this principle. There have been many talented people who were never motivated enough, or could never be bothered to put in the work necessary to make all of their brilliant ideas or abilities come to life. Those are the ones who are not recognized as great geniuses in history. Perhaps you know someone who appears to be quite brilliant, someone who always has ideas for how to fix things, for inventions, and ideas on what needs to be done to fix world issues. But it’s a much different thing to talk things through, as opposed to work things through. Some brilliant people prefer to think or talk things through first, then go to work. Others go to work first, look at the results, think and talk it through, and make improvements as they can. Either way can work. But going to work is a key step.