Malcolm Gladwell entertains the notion of experimental innovation. His thesis is simple. Most of us will never be geniuses right out of the gates. We need to toil, and work, and revise, and improve, and never settle for mediocrity.
As Mr. Gladwell articulates in his podcast, ‘Hallelujah’, Picasso was a genius, creating some of his greatest masterpieces in almost no time. As a contrast, Paul Cezanne (a Post Impressionist painter and a French artist) was an experimental innovator who revised his work — sometimes over many years — to seek that perfection. Maybe that’s why Cezanne never signed his art, because it was always a work in progress?
One does not have to be a genius for their work to be meaningful, or to be recognized. I may envy genius, but I admire those that don’t settle for ‘acceptable’ work. The beauty of genius is that it is so rare, which is why we envy and are awestruck with these personalities.
For the rest of us, hard work will have to suffice. The world is not run by genius. It is run by people that don’t ever quit, and those that never stop trying to get better at their craft.
About Hemant Rustogi