To my parents, Joan and Sandy Gelb, whose example brings to life these sacred words:
Happy are those who find wisdom
She is more precious than jewels,
And nothing you desire can compare with her
Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
The Talmud says,
“In the world to come each of us will be called to account for all the good things God put on earth that we refused to enjoy.” My wish for you is that you will use the wisdom of these great characters to keep that session as brief as possible.
—Michael J. Gelb
Contens
FOREWORD
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION: On the Shoulders of Giants
▲ 1 ▲
Plato
Deepening Your Love of Wisdom
▲ 2 ▲
Brunelleschi
Expanding Your Perspective
▲ 3 ▲
Columbus
Going Perpendicular: Strengthening Your Optimism, Vision, and Courage
Copernicus
Revolutionizing Your Worldview
▲ 5 ▲Elizabeth I
Wielding Your Power with Balance and Effectiveness
▲ 6 ▲Shakespeare
Cultivating Your Emotional Intelligence
▲ 7 ▲
Jefferson
Celebrating Your Freedom in the Pursuit of Happiness
▲ 8 ▲Darwin
Developing Your Power of Observation and Opening Your Mind
▲ 9 ▲Gandhi
Applying the Principles of Spiritual Genius to Harmonize Spirit, Mind, and Body
▲ 10 ▲
Einstein
Unleashing Your Imagination and Combinatory Play
Michael Gelb invites us to explore and apply the essential qualities of ten geniuses in a uniquely engaging personal manner. These extraordinary individuals all changed the world, and Gelb guides us to use their inspiration and example to change the way we look at our lives. Each of the geniuses he introduces was driven by an unquenchable passion for their particular kinds of truth and beauty. Copernicus’s act of remodeling the heavens, for example, was one of aesthetic cleansing, creating, as he claimed, a harmonious celestial body or perfect temple where the efforts to save the old theory had resulted in a monstrous structure.
We all have experienced the surprise at how different a street looks when we turn around and see it from another point of view. Most of history walks in one direction. Some geniuses have enabled us to turn around and look the other way, backwards or sideways. Leonardo, for example, noted how the so-called vanishing point toward which furrows in a ploughed field appear to converge seems to move with us as we walk beside the field. The genius not only alters our viewpoint, but also pulls our perspective into line with his or hers.
Through some magnificent act of insight, intuition, inspiration, brain wave, conviction, whatever we might call it, the genius sees or senses something from a different perspective. Their new perspective provides a view that ultimately proves so compelling that we can never see things in quite the same way again. What they see is often a bigger picture than we can readily grasp. And they can do this because they sense how the parts fit into the whole, the deeper harmonic resonance of things that may seem on the surface to be unrelated.
Originally conceived as an external guardian spirit, the notion of genius (from the root genare, “to generate, or beget”) evolved by the Renaissance to represent an innate talent, or special kind of in-built virtue in a specific area of accomplishment. Some argue, however, that the notion of individual genius is fundamentally flawed, nothing more than a construct of the Romantic era of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Romantics themselves captured the notion that there is something beyond reason in the supreme achievements of those who transcended the limitations that beset even their ablest contemporaries. Through the history of genius there runs a persistent strain, picked up by Shakespeare, that to be transformingly great you might, perhaps, need to be a bit mad.
There is a sense in which resorting to metaphors of the transcendent is inevitable in talking about genius. This might just be a matter of cliché. But I don’t think so. Understanding genius requires awareness of context, cultural milieu, history, and more, yet the individual component remains. We still can’t define it directly, pin it down by verbal formula. But, we can recognize it when we see or sense it (even though it may take centuries to do so), and can gain a grip on its elusive quality through creative imagination.
Is it daft to attempt to model our selves on the transcendent genius of a Copernicus, Brunelleschi, or Einstein? No, not if we consider that all these great minds applied essential principles of focus and purposefulness to the clarification of their core insights. Moreover, in the face of the monstrous structure of mass-media culture, the emphasis in these pages on a personal access to genius, beauty, and truth can enrich our lives aesthetically, intellectually, and morally
Of course we will all be able to quibble with Michael Gelb’s choices while recognizing the exemplary nature of those he has included, not as exemplary human beings in all cases, but as exemplary of what humans can potentially achieve, if only we believe in what we can do.
Martin Kemp, Professor of the History of Art at the University of Oxford
The challenge of combining accessibility with accuracy in bringing these great figures to life for you could not have been met without the help of an extraordinary “genius board” of advisers. I am very grateful to these exceptional scholars for their critiques and contributions:
Professor Roger Paden
Professor Jacqueline Eales
Piero Sartogo
Professor Roy Ellzey
Professor Jill Shepherd
Professor Carole Fungaroli
Dr. Win Wenger
Grandmaster Raymond Keene, O.B.E.
Professor Martin Kemp
In addition to serving on the “genius board,” Grandmaster Raymond Keene, O.B.E., and Professor Jacqueline Eales of Canterbury University provided in-depth, comprehensive academic research support for this project.
Special thanks to Audrey Ellzey, who organized and integrated the work of the “genius exercise” teams.
I’m grateful to all who participated in and offered feedback on the exercises, including Bobbi Sims, Dr. Roy Ellzey, Dr. Sheri Philabaum, Laura Sitges, Paul Davis, Michele Dudro, Karen Denson, David Owen, D’jengo Saunders, Lin Kroeger, Annette Morgan, Bridget Belgrave, Roben Torosayn, Jeannie Becker, Gwen Ellison, Katie Carey, Ron Gross, Stacy Forsythe, Virginia Kendall, Forrest Hainline, Jr., and Dr. Dale Schusterman.
This project also benefited from the critical reading and feedback generously offered by Jean Houston, Barbara Horowitz, Mark Levy, Merle Braun, Lyndsey Posner, Ken Adelman, Lisa Lesavoy Stella Lin, Jaya Koilpiilai, Dr. Marvin Hyett, Alex Knox, Beret Arcaya, Lori Dechar, and Sir Brian Tovey Audrey Ellzey Professor Roy Ellzey Grandmaster Raymond Keene, and Professor Robert Greenberg served as brilliant sounding boards for the selection of the musical masterpieces designed to enhance your appreciation of the genius qualities.
“Danke” to Eileen Meier for helping me create the space to write. “Grazie” to Nina Lesavoy for making the right connections and nurturing the vision. And “merci” to my super office staff: Denise Lopez, Ellen Morin, and Mary Hogan.
My external editor, Tom Spain, who also edited How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, provided superb constructive feedback in the development and manifestation of these ideas. Thanks to former HarperCollins editor Joe Veltre for shepherding this book through its intermediate phases with a quiet confidence and to my current editor, Kelli Martin for her enthusiasm, thoroughness, and dedication in ushering this project into the world. I’m also very grateful to Trena Keating for championing this project in its early stages. I feel incredibly fortunate to have discovered Norma Miller, and am honored by her willingness to embrace this book and help bring the geniuses to life through her remarkable portraits.
And, as always, I’m grateful to Muriel Nellis and Jane Roberts of Literary and Creative Artists for pulling the right levers in the engine room of success.
Since 1978 I’ve had the privilege of working with many of the most creative leaders in business internationally, leaders who strive to apply the genius principles in their personal and professional lives. Some who were especially helpful in this project include Ed Bassett, Tim Podesta, David Chu, Dennis Ratner, Jim DAgostino, Marcia Weider, Debbie Dunnam, Nina Lesavoy, Eddie Oliver, Ketan Patel, Marv Damsma, Tony Hayward, Gerry Krk, Mark Hannum, Susan Greenburg, and Harold Montgomery
INTRODUCTION
On the Shoulders of Giants
You were born with the potential for genius. We all were; just ask any mother.
In 1451, in the Italian seaport of Genoa, a new mother saw it in the eyes of her firstborn child, unaware that the scintillating power of the 100 ...
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