Defining What a “Creative Genius” is

The recent Kanye documentary on Netflix has me thinking about the nature of “genius” and what we tend to consider a genius. Historically, the idea of what a genius is has always been the archetype of someone (usually a white man, in history books published by other white men lol) who is naturally gifted at a certain craft. I say naturally because it’s traditionally written in the books as a nature over nurture thing: this person was so gifted at something, everyone else couldn’t compare and could never do what they did. Or as Schopenhauer famously wrote, “Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.” It’s almost like they didn’t even choose this field for themselves. They’re possessed by their talent, and it’s with them whether they wanted it or not: stories of painters cutting off their fucking ears is one example that comes to mind. The painter who gets lovesick and goes on to paint one of the greatest portraits ever in response to his emotional turmoil is a story we like to discuss a lot when this comes up. According to the dictionary app (on my Apple compy) genius is defined as: “a person who is exceptionally intelligent or creative, either generally or in some particular respect: one of the great musical geniuses of the 20th century.” The interesting thing about this definition to me is that it does not say this person is either born with genius or not, all it says is that the person is “exceptionally intelligent or creative,” which would suggest it’s something that could possess any person at any given time if they are prepared for it. The point of me writing this one, and what I am trying to get at here is that, the way we have always traditionally understood “genius” has been wrong.

Going back to Kanye West as a key example here: most fans of his work will tell you he is a genius. And people who only know him from the numerous headlines over the years will tell you he’s an attention seeking narcissist with bipolar and needs to take his medication and his fans are just placating him because it feeds into his delusions of grandeur that he’s a genius. Personally, I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The fact of the matter is: Kanye West is indeed a creative genius, but he was also not born with some crazy ability no one else has. What sets him apart from other people is that he worked and “dived in” to his abilities, and believed in himself and what he wanted to do. (I have included a poem here I wrote recently as the image for this one because I think it captures the feeling I’m trying to explain quite well). This is something that most people forget to do over time as the public school system, society at large, capitalism, and the need to pay bills beats the ever living shit out of us as we age and lose our sense of wonder.

In life there are a million fucking voices. From the time you wake up and check your phone to the moment it’s time to get back to bed, you’ve probably encountered way more voices than a human brain should consider natural. (I am aware this is echoing several things I’ve written in the past already about being on the fringes of existence, etc, lol). And the funny thing about this is that when we’re born, we are born with one fucking voice. Our inner dialogue is the most important one overall, and it seems like more and more people choose not to hear it clearly. We do all kinds of things to ignore it: if we watch a movie we gotta read a review to see what others think. If an album comes out we gotta watch some white guy with glasses on YouTube to see what he thinks instead of paying attention to how it made us feel. We have come to value other people’s voices more than we reasonably should. I am not saying a person should be a total sociopath and go around not giving a shit about what anyone else has to say, but when it comes to stuff like art and creativity and finding one’s own path, for example, a person does not need other people to tell them about it.

To use another example in history: Muhammad Ali. He was a guy who constantly told himself he was the greatest, repeatedly told others he was the greatest, and never backed down from telling his opponents he would beat the shit out of them in the ring. A funny thing I’ve learned about Ali from watching various documentaries over the years is that, he himself did not always believe this to be true. There were times when he would walk past George Foreman practicing in the gym (I honestly can’t remember now and I’m too lazy to look up which documentary it was in or who it was, but it might have been Frazier), and Foreman was hitting the heavy bag so hard the fucking thing was cracking and it was terrifying to watch. But according to people there, Ali wouldn’t look at this or pay too much attention to it. Instead, he just went to his own corner of the same gym, and got to work on himself. He kept practicing, and kept talking his shit about being the greatest and how he was gonna win anyway, etc. The whole point of Ali’s insistence that he was the greatest of all time was not really for others to believe it (although partly, yes), it was mainly to convince himself first and foremost. I would argue that, on some level, all people we consider to be “geniuses” must do this in some way.

I will use my own personal artistic experience as an example now. Whenever I have sat down to write anything in the past, if I don’t truly believe it’s going to be the greatest thing ever by the time I’m done, if I have any moments of doubt at all, the project will turn out to be a piece of shit by the time I’m done with it. I have written entire screenplays that I don’t particularly care for right now, but I only finished because I wanted to see what they’d look like by the time I was done, and sure enough: it wasn’t good because I didn’t have that, “This is the greatest thing ever,” mentality when writing it. And the opposite has happened: whenever I have gone into a project thinking that it’s gonna be the greatest piece of work ever, I finish with something I am proud of. (Side note: Patrice O’Neal once talked about this same concept when approaching women. You have to “Be Righteous” about whatever it is you do, and believe in yourself and actions wholly, or you’ll be a fraud and will be perceived as such).

Another example from my own life I can remember clearly is trying to get my driver’s license. Canada’s system is kinda weird in that you have to go through multiple tests in order to finally get your “G” license class. I failed the driving test for silly reasons a couple times (both due to my own fault, and because of dumb driving testers), but miraculously: the final time I took the test I literally looked myself in the mirror and said to myself, “You’re gonna do this. You’re a good fucking driver, you just gotta show these fucking momos you can do it.” Sure enough: the day I gave myself this “pep talk” I passed the test. Now, I’m not saying all it takes is a pep talk, I’m just saying it’s a huge aspect of genius we tend to overlook. There’s no use feeling bad or any worse than you need to in life: big yourself up, because who tf else is gonna do it for you? You gotta believe in yourself.

The other thing to remember about “outside voices” is that….who the fuck are they? In either direction: whether they label you a moronic crazy person or a genius, at the end of the day they are still other voices. What does it mean to be labelled a genius if the people saying you’re a genius are just momentarily dumber than you are and didn’t tap into their personal genius? That’s not praise worth being proud of. And what does it mean if these same people call you an idiot? It’s all meaningless, you should just listen to your own brain and dive.

Truthfully, I think anyone can be a genius. Everyone is a genius, they just choose to tap into the wrong versions of themselves sometimes. Some people have this weird belief that, “Oh….that guy can do that because he was born with that particular ability. I can’t do it because I’m not talented.” Maybe you will never be able to be Michael Jordan. That is true, lol. I always sucked at sports, and our talents only go so far haha. I mean, I’m good at air hockey haha, but I would probably not be the best basketball teammate. But I don’t think genius is this thing that is impossible and beyond our reach. How the fuck do you think I’ve written multiple novels and screenplays? It’s because I made the conscious decision to tell myself I was a genius each time I sat down to work, and that the final product would be nothing less than amazing. And like I just said: the few times I didn’t go into a project thinking that: failure. 

There’s a final quote I want to end this one on that has always been a very big deal to me. It was on a large banner in my classrooms in elementary school and I internalized it deeply: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.” Genius is attainable, go for it😎.