Do You Have to Be a Genius to Be a Success?

We’ve been doing some research on the term “genius”. We’ve read a lot. We’ve thought a lot. And we’ve learned a lot.

So we’re ready to share some thoughts with you. As we studied, we found some significant disagreements on genius.

A good example is in quotes about the kind of “sense” involved in genius. There are two camps. We fall in the second one.

Camp 1: Common sense

The first one is represented by Ralph Waldo Emerson who said:

“Common sense is as rare as genius, – is the basis of genius.”

Is common sense rare? Voltaire thought so – “Common sense is not so common.”

But then why do we call it common sense? And whatever you call it, is it “the basis of genius,” as Emerson asserts?

We don’t think so.

George Bernard Shaw said, “Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius.”

On this we agree – genius is the result of the right instincts. However, we don’t equate instinct with common sense.

Camp 2: Uncommon sense

The other side holds a different point-of-view, as demonstrated in this quote by William James:

“Genius, in truth, means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.”

BIGG success is about entrepreneuring your life – taking control to create the life of your dreams.

Entrepreneurs are often able to see things in a different way than most people. This ability is one of the drivers of their success.

So we agree with James. Only we think he diminishes the importance of “perceiving in an unhabitual way.” He says it “means little more.”

But in another he said something particularly important for us today:

“The essence of genius is to know what to overlook.”

We are overloaded with information. Mastering the art of quickly separating the essential from the extraneous is critical is you want to be a BIGG success.

What do you think? Is genius common sense or uncommon sense?

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