Chapter 1
You Are a natural genius
Part 3.
Finding Your Genius Game
Genius needs the right environment to express itself. If you play a game that is too small, your genius has no reason to show up. If you play a game that is too big, you usually freeze and your genius abilities can’t express themselves either.
Finding the right playground for your genius is essential. You can be smart, experienced and talented, but if you have a business or job that doesn’t require your smarts, experience and talents, they atrophy.
Susanna experienced this firsthand:
“My first job in corporate America was as an administrative assistant. I had had a successful career as an account manager in Germany, and I had coached children to achieve better performance levels in school. Most of those skills were not required in the administrative assistant position. In fact, my own way of thinking was considered a fault. As the assistant, I had to follow someone else’s agenda instead of my own. I had to be good at proofreading and grammar and I had to do tons of details without ever really knowing why. I did not do well in this position and for sure my genius didn’t show itself to me or to the people around me. Luckily, I was able to move on to greater playgrounds soon after that.”
A Common Ground Named Desire
While your genius is as unique as your DNA, there are traits commonly shared by all people who are manifesting their genius. Primarily, they have a bone-deep desire to challenge their exceptional abilities and develop them. This passion carries them through barriers they face and brings them in contact with others who will encourage them.
In the case of Mozart, his father supported him from the start. This enabled a much faster development of his genius. Therefore, by the age of six, Mozart was performing on the piano, and at the age of ten, he began composing. Few are so fortunate to have our genius made apparent and nurtured at such an early age.
The Payoff of Passion
Genius is hidden because most people never learn what theirs is. Instead, they perform on the periphery of their genius, but not in the core. This impacts more than just their enjoyment—it affects their earning power. Genius is often associated with sacrifice, but quite the opposite is true. It’s those who resist their genius who pay the price, working in jobs just to cover their bills, but never truly prospering.
Manifesting your genius means learning what it is, applying it in a field that matches it and benefiting from becoming an expert or specialist. In the professional market place, it’s the specialists who command the highest fees. They are also the ones who love their work. You don’t find geniuses “in action” satisfied with just paying their bills. They may enjoy their lifestyle, but they don’t live for it. Why is that? Because they are fully alive in their work and it means something to them.
So many of us sleepwalk through our professions, driven by the need for financial security or recognition, but not satisfying our core passion. Geniuses are on fire. They are positioned to be the most successful people in the world. Geniuses can measure their reward in terms of income, quality of life and personal satisfaction. It’s quite a compelling equation.
The Spark of Common Sense
When you look at it clearly, you can see that natural genius is simple. Genius doesn’t get all tied up in analysis paralysis, where you scrutinize a topic, event, emotion or person to such an extent that you become stuck. Any action or creative thought is stymied when your brain goes around in endless loops. That’s because its ability to shift from input mode (examination) into output mode (action) never happens. It’s like driving on an endless onramp but never reaching the highway.
When you hit your natural genius stride, you often bypass analysis entirely. I recently spoke to a businessman who established a restaurant franchise and is now selling them all over the country. I asked him what makes some people buy his franchise and not other franchises.
He mentioned the price and value of the offering, but then he stopped and said that many of the people who end up buying his franchise say they do so because “it just feels right” to them. This might sound reckless or irresponsible, but his franchisees are typically experienced investors. This is the entrepreneurial genius in action. Many of us get “gut feelings” about doing some sort of business, but the entrepreneur has the confidence and wisdom to act on it.
Check Your Ego at the Door
Natural Genius is actually the healthiest state for mind and body. Real genius and ego have nothing to do with each other. In fact, nothing blocks the emergence of our genius more than our own professional egos. That’s because the ego is afraid to lose what it has, no matter how meager or unsatisfying it may be. Otto can use himself as an example:
“In Germany, being a teacher is a good and well-respected profession with a great salary and guaranteed employment. So instead of moving on to Genius Coaching sooner, I struggled to be the best teacher I could be. I was never happy, but my ego was afraid of losing my status. Teaching was well accepted. I got a lot of recognition but little satisfaction, and not a Euro more for all my efforts. To give that up in order to work at something innovative and unproven was daunting. In the end, though, my natural genius urge won out.”
Ego also enters the picture when a person develops his or her specialty area to a genius level and then automatically assumes that they can perform at that level in other non-related areas as well, not recognizing the boundaries of their talents. Salvador Dali was a genius. He initiated surrealism as an entirely new style in painting. His surrealist paintings broke many existing perceptions of what painting could be about. But as a businessman, he was a mess. In fact, he almost ruined himself, thinking he was as brilliant at business as he was at painting. Fortunately for him, he married a woman who took over and saved his business affairs.
Geniuses usually don’t operate by themselves. They require the support, nurturing, and yes, the natural genius, of others. Under the old interpretation of genius, they are loners who operate in isolation, removed from a world that can’t understand them. Our culture idealizes the myth that only a few geniuses exist and these are super heroes to be put on pedestals. This ego-building myth has nothing to do with the reality of a true genius—one who exceeds commonly held standards in his or her area of expertise and who needs others supporting him or her on a daily basis. The loner geniuses are often held to be on the verge of madness. But what triggers mental disease is not genius; rather, it’s the resistance to one’s natural genius and the isolation that often accompanies it. This is why genius is truly the healthiest state for mind and body to be in. Genius is not a professional ego trip, it’s the end of the ego trip.
Mining for Genius Gold
Genius comes with responsibility and accountability—if you don’t take action you pay a price. You might get away with a mediocre life for a while, but there’s a deep unhappiness that’s always present. Even when you’re happy, you’re unhappy.
Your natural genius is not a burden; it’s your goldmine. Sometimes you have to dig deep. Usually you have to remove some rocks and earth to get to the gold. And the longer you’ve been here, the more layers there may be to remove. The point is to not focus on the worthless dirt and rock. Keep your eye out for the glint of gold. It’s in you—you just have to get clear about what you’re looking for.
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Ch. 1 Part 1 | Ch. 1 Part 2 | Ch. 1 Part 3