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WHAT IF I TOLD YOU THAT YOU WERE A GENIUS?
When you think of geniuses, who are the first people that come to mind? I’m guessing Einstein and Shakespeare are on your shortlist. Others might include Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, Marie Curie, or Ruth Bader Ginsburg. These names pop into many people’s heads because each of them was extraordinary in the kinds of intelligence we tend to equate with genius. But was LeBron James on your list? How about Beyoncé? Or Oprah? Or you?
It wouldn’t be surprising if you didn’t include the latter names on your list. Most of us tend to equate genius with one particular measurement of intelligence: IQ. People with outsize IQs are geniuses, and people with lesser IQs can be good or even great at something, but they aren’t considered geniuses.
If this sounds like your kind of thinking, you’re far from alone in defining genius far, far too narrowly. I would even take this to the point of suggesting that most people define genius in this way. But there are two problems with that. One is that it prevents you from appreciating the genius a wide variety of people hold. The other is that it might prevent you from identifying the genius in yourself.
There are multiple forms of genius. Various experts differ on the number, but it is commonly agreed that genius expresses itself in one of four
manners. Here’s a way of looking at it that has been around for thousands of years:
Dynamo genius: Those who express their genius through creativity and ideas. Shakespeare was a dynamo genius because of his brilliance at inventing stories that told us so much about ourselves. Galileo was a dynamo genius because of the way he could see things that others couldn’t see when he looked up at the skies. Dynamo geniuses are those we most commonly think of when we think of geniuses.
Blaze genius: Those whose genius becomes clear through their interaction with others. Oprah Winfrey is a blaze genius because of her extraordinary ability to connect with the hearts, minds, and souls of a wide range of individuals. Malala Yousafzai’s blaze genius expresses itself through her ability to make her story relatable to people all around the globe. Blaze geniuses tend to be master communicators.
Tempo genius: Those whose genius expresses itself through their ability to see the big picture and stay the course. Nelson Mandela was a tempo genius because he was capable of seeing the wisdom of his vision even in the face of overwhelming odds. Mother Teresa’s tempo genius allowed her to imagine better circumstances for those around her even at the darkest times. Tempo geniuses tend to understand the long view in ways that most of those around them cannot.
Steel genius: Those who are brilliant at sweating the small stuff and doing something with the details that others missed or couldn’t envision. Sergey Brin used his genius at seeing the potential of large amounts of data to co-found Google. If you read the book Moneyball, then you know that Billy Beane and his staff redefined baseball through their genius at crunching data. Steel geniuses love getting all the information they can get and have a vision for doing something with that information that most others miss.
There’s a very good chance that your own genius is a combination of two or more of these. Very few of us are only data people or are only adept at being empathetic. But what’s important for you to understand here is that genius extends far beyond your ability to excel at academics or recite the periodic table on command—and that you have genius inside of you.
If you find that last statement surprising, you might want to go back and reread some of the earlier chapters in this book. Making yourself limitless is all about unleashing your innate genius. Maybe you aren’t the dynamo of Shakespeare or the blaze of Oprah, but there is some combination of genius inside of you that is either waiting to express itself or waiting to express itself more. The key is letting it free.
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