Tenacity: staying power, fortitude, perseverance, persistence, tenacity, doggedness, grit, resolution, stamina, determination, endurance.
For all of you who believe that genius is about superhuman intellect or world-encompassing insight on command. If you’ve ever been led to believe that working hard infers that you aren’t bright enough to achieve dazzling success on your first pass.
This one is for you.
It’s for those whose vision simply banishes the option of a safe job and bowing to social expectation of settling. For the restless and driven who withstand scorn and scoff of their ideas and persist through countless failures. For those who challenge the impossible.
The difficult is that which can be done immediately; the impossible that which takes a little longer.
- philosopher George Santayana
Many of our species have defied the impossible:
Roger Bannister shattering the myth of the 4minute mile, the Wright brothers giving humans wings, Walt Disney building a kingdom around a talking mouse.. the list goes on through those who reshaped possibilty on a large scale.
To almost all great ones it wasn’t some effortless conspiring of the “Universe” in the fashion of The Secret that powered their world.changing efforts.
Their successes came, borne of sweat, frustration and failure. Yet there is a persistent belief that if you have to work hard it must mean that you aren’t all that smart. We’re seduced into believing the diet pill fantasy. Our society tumbling into soft.headed infatuation with these promising shortcuts to success, like a love.sick teenager not yet topped up with common.sense or cynicism.
If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all. - Michelangelo
There is one inherently surprising quality to genius (as opposed to fast and hard street smarts for example). It is fragile. Genius is not inherited, unlike genetically-transmittable talents. It is volatile and easily crushed and muted by insult.
Which is why the unrelenting armour of tenacity is so needed as its accompaniment.
The armour your ally against the resistance, laughter, ego.bashing rejections and smug enjoyment you provide for detractors when you make mis.takes.
In China, this strategy comes through the development of an impenetrable “thick face”. Don the armour of determination if you have a truly innovative idea with world.changing capability, and buckle down for what may be a bumpy ride for the ego on that less.travelled road.
It may not make rational sense, looking at the radical pace of technology, but the world is curiously opposed to new ideas (the REALLY new ones that solve problems of long.standing inefficiencies in particular). Determination is wedded to a long.term strategy which will see you through the short term relief opportunities that come up. The quick money offers, the safer jobs and status upgrades, pay.off’s or even sidestepping physical threat as your ideas meet the market.
Great ideas are cheap and plentiful. Those who will actually work to make sure they happen, precious few. I finally realised we have no lack of passionate brilliant people with ingenious solutions. We have all the available capability to deal with the world’s woes very effectively. But the proportion of people who are prepared to risk their own time, money, reputation on birthing their ideas? And then the proportion left after a year or so? Or those who could have the patience to bear 50,000 experiments to perfect the alkaline battery for example?
Only genius buffered by tenacity would refuse to give up or settle for good enough.
Computer engineer & mathematician Howard Aiken said it best “Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats“
That’s why NDA’s are a giggle for the most part these days. If it’s a really great concept, good luck! because there are special devils set aside that will ensure that it is forged and fortified with its dues in time, sweat & tears.
Regardless of whether it’s a clean alternative fuel, getting your body in shape, or getting your business to get to the point where it pays without pain: endurance pays off, exponentially.
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; un-rewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
-Calvin Coolidge
Genius provides the visionary ignition spark and your tenacity ensures you get there, in one piece.
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this post is part of the monthly theme on Endurance
found here on Hunter of Genius & beyond.
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Innovation is one of those spaces that has to bridge both. This often elusive strategic advantage that could catapult you into uncontested territory (with the benefits of time, little competition, easy PR and high desirability in the marketplace) is often seen as the “soft stuff” best left to the creatives/scientists/inventors to envision. Mistakenly.
In the North Sea of China, the legend says, “there is a fish called Kun which is thousands of metres long. This great fish evolves into a bird called Pung. Pung also measures thousands of metres long. Swooping as he flies, his wings expand like the clouds covering the sky, Pung flies over the great sea southward to his destination: the Celestial Pool.
