RS1 How to be a Genius?

                If I were to ask myself how to be a genius I would not know where to start. I believed that you were born a genius, and it was embedded within ones genes to be one. Knowing that you can become one has changed my perception of dedication, work, and necessities of life. The point being, I am not a very motivated person because I hold talents such as athleticism and intelligence but I do not use them to their full potential.

                David Dobbs, “How to be a Genius” was an informing excerpt to read for one that is looking to master in a field, or to push them self to fulfill their true talent and put it to good use. Dobbs stated in the article, “A genius is 1 percent inspiration, 29 percent good instruction and encouragement, and 70 percent perspiration… Geniuses are made, not born” (Dobbs 1). Dobbs hit the nail on the head with his perception of what it takes to evolve into a genius because when you have talent you can be too overwhelmed with it and fade away from it. Encouragement is a key component to the mastery because the harder you are motivated to work the more you get out of it and you become more engaged.

I can reflect upon this because I was a gifted wrestler as a kid, and when I hit high school I was burnt out. I was no longer interested in the sport because there was not much competition, until a world champion wrestler and coach from trinity encouraged me to continue my wrestling career. He showed me moves I never heard of and pushed me beyond my comfort zone which paid off in the long run when I became ranked in the nation as a high school wrestler. This can be connected with the 10 year rule Dobb’s has faith in as well as I do. He believes that if you work at your task at hand for 10 years or more you will become a master if you put in the hours and attention.

In addition, those who are gifted with knowledge and high IQ’s are not always geniuses. It was revealed when they did a study on an elementary school which accepted IQ’s from 115+ (less than 1% of society). The outcome of the experiment was that these kids may be gifted with intelligence but they do not have the strive towards excellence. This is also apparent with college applicants and the SATs. It is an evaluation that is inaccurate because someone can be a bad test taker with good grades, vise versa.  This is just like how an IQ test is inaccurate because I feel that some of the most successful and smartest people do not have an IQ of 130, they are normal individuals that are just masters in their field.

All in all, I thought this article was a great read and would recommend it to anyone that believes they are Mr. Smartypants or have no motivation. After reading this I feel enlightened with a new approach to life being dedicated, putting my time and work in as well as knowing in the back of my head if I do it right one day I can be in the 1% who is a genius.