Geniuses are not good at everything, not even for the fact that limitless other things palpably exist outside their knowledge.
No undue motivation should steer you into life’s bleaky side by believing that you can do everything. You actually can’t!!! Each and every one of us is designed for certain purposes. If you’re really good, the dexterity of your repertoire cuts across a number of paths but this is not to give the impression that you can excel doing everything.
By the way, I cannot believe that anyone who understands or has an idea of the complexity of the world will in his right state of mind think that he can attempt just anything he wishes to, and come out victorious in doing so.
I was triggered to put this piece up in response to a friend’s post that reads partly: “Some few exceptional people will thrive in anything their hands find doing.” Anyway, I must also admit that he posted it at about 2 AM which should be somewhat subject to Jimmy Breslin’s opinion of a brilliant idea that hasn’t survived a hangover.
I hadn’t slept when this post was made and about fifteen minutes thereafter I went through it and responded: “If he had tried to, not even Einstein would have thrived in everything… Do you really see the possibility of some people’s repertoire extending to every path, sir?”
You want to know what it is that got Albert Einstein involved in this? Despite being an exceptional genius in his time, Einstein never learned to drive a car. When asked, he said he sees driving a car as a complex thing to learn.
When honoured also with an invitation to rule as president in Israel in 1952, Einstein turned the blank check down, he knew and declared the realisation of his own weaknesses. He knew being a physicist (dealing with the abstracts) has no relation with ruling people, even though others only saw through rose-coloured glasses.
Also plausible to identify is the first African Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka’s attitude to politics. Despite having contributed his ideas (in words) immensely to politics, he has always refused to participate in politics himself.
Further, Albert didn’t make his grand discoveries alone as you might have thought. There is this story of Einstein telling a little girl that maths is as hard for him as it is for her. He did her maths assignments for her occasionally though, but he might simply have exaggerated — Einstein was telling the truth. He was said to have some mathematician friends (Marcel Grossman and Besso) who helped him with some tough maths calculations when he needed to get any done.
Now you wonder how a great physicist like Einstein doesn’t even have so much understanding of maths? Well, we just considered a man that lived meaningfully by avoiding lying to himself. Understanding and giving in to how much we need one another in life will definitely make life more meaningful. No position in life warrants knowing it all!
Albeit, if Einstein had not been sagacious enough, he probably would have thought his intelligence is an immunity to being able to do every of the things he should have done, and perhaps he would not have ended up gloriously.
The ability to understand one’s strength and lapses is a virtue immanent especially in truly intelligent people. On the other hand, pseudo- intellectuals want to have a taste of everything forgetting not only that Jack of all trades is a master of none, but also that whoever chases two rabbits catches neither [Confucius].
I’m not disputing the fact that certain people in life are unique (extraordinary) and can get a lot of things done just as though they were specifically designed to do those things. My viewpoint is that irregardless of a person’s brilliance and intelligence, it is impossible (definitely an unrealistic thing) for one man to perform well in every path (talk of career now) of life.
To wrap up, readers of this content should understand that man has to be interdependent, therefore it remains that no man is an Island unto himself. A saying goes, “He who knows one thing does not know another.”
ShareDisclaimer: Using Albert Einstein alone as an example may have limited the scope of this composition, but I’ll also entertain any contrary opinion with an example too.
