Anders Ericsson, the professor of psychology who edited the ‘Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance’ said, “It’s complicated explaining how genius or expertise is created and why it’s so rare. But it isn’t magic, and it isn’t born. It happens because some critical things line up so that a person of good intelligence can put in the sustained, focused effort it takes to achieve extraordinary mastery.”

Professor Ericsson goes on to say, “These people don’t necessarily have an especially high IQ, but they almost always have very supportive environments, and they almost always have important mentors. And the one thing they always have is this incredible investment of effort.”

So it seems the ability we’re so fond of calling genius arises not from inherent gifts but from an interplay of good (but not extraordinary) natural ability, quality instruction, and lots of work.

Thomas Edison said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration”. If we examine closely even the most extreme examples - Mozart, Newton, Einstein - and you find more hard-won mastery than gift. Geniuses are made, not born.

Professor Ericsson said, “It makes me think that even the most ordinary among us should be careful about saying we can’t do great things, because people have proven again and again that most people can do something extraordinary if they’re willing to put in the exercise. On the other hand, it’s a bit overwhelming to look at what these people have to do. They generally invest about five times as much time and effort to become great as an accomplished amateur does to become competent. It’s not something everyone’s up for.”

Studies of chess masters and highly successful artists, writers, scientists and musicians usually find their IQs to be above average, typically in the 115 to 130 range - impressive enough, but hardly as rarefied as their achievements and abilities.

Conversely, there was a study done of adult graduates of New York City’s Hunter College, where the admission criterion was an IQ of at least 130 and where the mean IQ was 157 (”genius” territory). The study showed most of the Hunter graduates ended up successful and reasonably content with their lives, but they had not reached the heights of accomplishment, either individually or as a group, that their IQs might have suggested.

In the words of study leader Rena Subotnik, “There were no superstars, no Pulitzer Prize or MacArthur Award winners, and only one or two familiar names.” The genius these elite students showed in their IQs remained on paper.

Take Stephen Hawking, who likes to dismiss questions about his IQ by saying, “People who boast about their IQ are losers,” and was a middling student and achiever until his mid-twenties. Only then did he catch fire - and begin working obsessively - while collaborating with fellow physicist Roger Penrose on black-hole theory.

Another study in 1985 of 120 elite athletes, performers, artists, biochemists and mathematicians showed that every single person in the study took at least a decade of hard work or practice to achieve international recognition.

The same even goes for those few who seem born with supreme talent. Mozart was playing the violin at 3 years of age and received expert, focused instruction from the start. He was precocious, writing symphonies at age 7, but he didn’t produce the work that made him a giant until his teens.

Genius must be built. Maybe we should shelve the notion of genius as an innate gift and speak instead of expertise, talent or even greatness - terms that hint at the underlying work needed to achieve supreme accomplishment.

“Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.” - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

“Our creative genius is the fountainhead of originality. It fires our compulsion to evolve. It inspires us to challenge norms. Creative genius is about flying to new heights on untested wings. It is about the danger of crashing.” - Gordon MacKenzie

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