BEYOND GENIUS

AuthorHouse

Contents

Foreword.............................................................7Preface..............................................................11Introduction.........................................................15Part Two | Historical Renaissance Men................................49Imhotep..............................................................53Chamundaraya.........................................................57Leonardo da Vinci....................................................61Michelangelo.........................................................69Galileo Galilei......................................................77Blaise Pascal........................................................83Isaac Newton.........................................................93Benjamin Franklin....................................................99Thomas Jefferson.....................................................107Part Three | Contemporary Renaissance Men............................119Dave Stewart.........................................................137John Paul DeJoria....................................................153Frank Nuovo..........................................................167Richard Branson......................................................179Quincy Jones.........................................................191Yvon Chouinard.......................................................203Elon Musk............................................................213Steve Jobs...........................................................227Conclusion...........................................................231Acknowledgements.....................................................235

Chapter One

"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark." - Michelangelo

The first essential trait is the one we all associate with the concept of a Renaissance Man: he is, by definition, not only an authority in his own profession; he is accomplished in a number of areas. He is, in short, a man of many talents.

This trait is the ante, the price of admission, the bar. One cannot excel at just one thing and be considered a true Renaissance Man.

Unlike the Jack-of-all-trades who is master of none, the Renaissance Man puts the time in to gain mastery of all his interests, and the range can be wide. Galileo invented the protocols of modern science, wrote several earth-shaking books, and was a professor of fine art; Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and invented bifocal glasses.

Renaissance Men know that specialization is not a requirement of success. They ignore the naysayers and the pigeon-holers and pursue all their passions, no matter how many. They challenge the concept that talent must be limited or limiting, and embrace instead the full expression of themselves.

Chapter Two

"The capacity to be puzzled is the premise of all creation, be it in art or in science." - Erich Fromm

When Benjamin Franklin was a young man, he began the nation's first lending library—mainly so he could get his hands on more books, precious items and rare in those days. Thomas Jefferson (the "living embodiment of an inquisitive mind") owned so many books that his personal library became the core of the Library of Congress when he sold it to the U.S. government.

Curiosity is an indispensable trait of the Renaissance Man. Through reading, personal experience and education, he seeks to know all he can about this world.

At the same time, for the Renaissance Man, an advanced education is overrated. As Albert Einstein put it, "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." Both Leonardo de Vinci and Benjamin Franklin received only basic educations in their youths, and it was only when they grew older that they got their hands on books and taught themselves history, literature, math, and more. With their curiosity driving them to attain knowledge, they each become a self-taught man (or autodidact).

While many people are naturally curious, that doesn't make them all Renaissance Men. The key is a "dynamic curiosity"—a curiosity that leads to an active pursuit of knowledge, a search for answers that leads to more questions, which leads to the pursuit of more knowledge, and so on—in other words: a hunger for learning. We may all be born with unlimited curiosity, but at some age, through family pressures or societal forces, the urge to explore our world is dampened and depleted in most of us. But not in the Renaissance Man.

Chapter Three

"A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people." - Mahatma Gandhi

The Renaissance Man does not live in an ivory tower, in a world of thought far removed from the everyday concerns of his society. Even Galileo had to work for a living, and he spent time in actual towers (including a particular leaning tower).

The Renaissance Man is immersed in his culture. Like Imhotep, he is engaged in his society's development, its goals and aspirations. Like Isaac Newton, he is well read, up-to-date, and interested in other people and places. He pays close attention to the politics of the day. He traces societal forces, sees trends in the arts, sciences, commerce, politics, and the media. He understands and appreciates both high culture and low. And he is more likely than not to see the opportunity in everything he sees and hears.

The Renaissance Man also understands culture to mean refinement and good taste. While he can make do with a loaf of bread or a bowl of rice, he enjoys the fruits of culture: he knows the pleasures of a fine meal of osso bucco over wild rice and a glass of perfectly aged Bordeaux.

And he is discerning—the Renaissance Man rarely engages in small talk just to pass the time. If he takes part in a conversation, he embraces it with his full attention. When he reads, he does not enjoy fluff as much as an in-depth article on a scientific or cultural discovery. The Renaissance Man is constantly pushing himself to experience more of his world.

While the Renaissance Man embodies his own culture, he knows it does not contain the sum of humanity's art and knowledge, or have all the answers. So he travels. He explores. Like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson did in their day, who sought to understand cultures other than their own. It is not unusual for the Renaissance Man to speak and read several languages. He not only values other cultures, but learns from them all he can.

Chapter Four

"When the brain is whole, the unified consciousness of the left and right hemispheres adds up to more than the individual properties of the separate hemispheres." -Roger Wolcott Sperry

Many people live their lives expressing themselves principally from one side of the brain or the other. The left brain is the domain of logic, numbers, of sequential thinking, of language, of organization and linearity. The right brain is the domain of creativity, artistic inspiration, intuition, visual art, and non-linear thinking. Artists are generally considered more right brain; scientists, businessmen, and mathematicians more left brain. Being able to merge aspects of both right and left brain thinking greatly enhances the expression of both. And Renaissance Men consistently show this desire to operate from both hemispheres.

Leonardo da Vinci was an artist whose notebooks contained designs for scientific and technological innovations. Galileo was a scientist who used his knowledge of fine art to understand what he was seeing through his telescope.

Most of today's Renaissance Men are similarly able to blend art and science, creativity and business, aesthetics and technology. Steve Jobs, for example, loathed the ugly beige boxes that were the norm for personal computers—designed by engineers for engineers. So he hired Jonathan Ive, a graduate of Northumbria University (Newcastle Polytechnic at the time), to create a computer that was a work of art. Dave Stewart may have made his name with the pop-duo Eurythmics, but he now embraces technology to move digital entertainment and commerce forward through his company and creative incubator, Weapons of Mass Entertainment. Stewart calls this ability to embrace a whole-brain paradigm a "left/right brain meld."

Even when the Renaissance Man is not himself an artist or a scientist, he still immerses himself in these fields. Not everyone can be a da Vinci or a Galileo, but every Renaissance Man has found a way to support the arts and sciences. Chamundaraya, for instance, was a warrior and politician, but he commissioned a sixty-foot tall sculpture of his religion's founder which became an important cultural artifact and religious site. Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic Airways, founded Virgin Galactic to encourage the development of space tourism.

In the sciences, the Renaissance Man stays current, following the newest theories and advances, sharing the excitement of the latest discoveries—whether it's a new species at the bottom of the sea, or the development of a promising new cancer treatment. Advances in science are as thrilling to him as if he, himself, supported the research—which he may well have done.

Similarly he understands that art builds connections between people, between communities, and between cultures. Art helps us to express what it means to be a human being. To the Renaissance Man, art isn't a luxury but a necessity. Art inspires us and moves us forward, and a society's commitment to the arts is one of the most important ways to gauge that society

Chapter Five

"Whenever I found out anything remarkable, I have thought it my duty to put down my discovery on paper, so that all ingenious people might be informed thereof." - Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Not only does he seek out knowledge, information and experience, the Renaissance Man is happy to share what he's discovered or done. He is both interested and interesting.

In conversation, his knowledge is deep and personal; a spellbinding storyteller, his insights are often profound. He lights up and engages while discussing his work, his perspectives and his plans. This is one thing that separates the Renaissance Man from the Know-It-All: the Renaissance Man is not a bore.

Another thing a Renaissance Man will do that the bore will never do: he will listen to you. Whether he is sharing with his friends or his team, he loves to debate ideas, to challenge and be challenged. He knows a good discussion, like a tennis game, requires the conversation to volley back and forth.

Sharing may also take the form of becoming a mentor or teacher (or in the case of Jefferson, founding a University) whose students will carry his ideas further. Or sharing may be expressed in a more altruistic sense. Benjamin Franklin selflessly refused to take out patents for any of his inventions, because he wanted to share his innovations with humanity rather than focus on extracting profits for himself.

The Renaissance Man may share his most important discoveries or revolutionary ideas in books. Galileo was one of the world's first scientists, but it was as an author that his name and his discoveries spread throughout the world. Teddy Roosevelt shared his insights and adventures in over three dozen books. Yvon Chouinard wrote a book explaining how his company, and other companies, can have a meaningfully positive environmental impact. As an author, the Renaissance Man can share significant concepts, including his vision of the future, with others.

Chapter Six

"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go." - T.S. Eliot

This quality does not imply a willingness to simply gamble with the chips falling where they may. The Renaissance Man never takes a risk for risk's sake. When proper due diligence has been carried out and a careful risk assessment made, when the potential benefits outweigh the expected cost—only then is the Renaissance Man willing to roll the dice.

Implied in the courage to take risks is the courage to fail. In most worst case scenarios, failure leads the Renaissance Man to lessons and introspection, until he can internalize the lessons and become even more powerful.

Sometimes the Renaissance Man faces substantially higher risks, and it really is life or death.

When Galileo wrote his book describing the theory of heliocentrism, he did all he could to minimize the risk, including obtaining the prior permission of the church. Still, he knew publishing the work was fraught with risk.

Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, along with all the signatories to the Declaration of Independence, were well aware of the risk they were taking. They calculated their chances as good, and therefore hung together. But if the colonists had lost the Revolutionary War, they would have all "hung separately."

Humanity cannot progress without these risk takers willing to take chances, pushing us further.

CH7[ I create

"Imagination is the beginning of creation." - George Bernard Shaw

The creative force is one of the primal urges of human beings, and being able to produce something novel is at the heart of what makes life worth living for the Renaissance Man.

Often an author, musician, artist or inventor, the Renaissance Man expresses creativity in a variety of media. Leonardo de Vinci's Mona Lisa is, perhaps, the most famous painting in human history; Imhotep was architect to the Pharaohs; Benjamin Franklin's inventions helped as many people as his writings liberated.

But creativity is not solely about works of art. Sometimes it is the ability to see a new approach to cracking a scientific puzzle. Jonah Lehrer, author of Proust was a Neuroscientist (2007), described the creative process as, in part, "the ability to stare at a problem until it makes sense." A new business or business model can be a creation, along with a new product or a scientific innovation, or connecting the dots in new and exciting ways. A new society is also a creation, and Thomas Jefferson's crafting of a Declaration of Independence inspired a nation to be free. Creators are artists and engineers, designers and teachers, musicians and businessmen.

Studies have shown that the most creative people make more money and lead happier lives. In his 2003 book, The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida, an economist, examined the creative economy and took note of the growing economic role of creativity. Among the habits of creative people are enthusiasm, persistence, optimism, and welcoming the unexpected. ]CH7

CH8[ I persevere

"Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." - Calvin Coolidge

The unsung hero of traits, a potential Renaissance Man who has every other attribute but lacks perseverance is one you will never hear of, because he gave up too soon.

The Renaissance Man keeps moving forward, even when giving up hope may seem the better option. No matter the odds stacked against him, he is always willing to give it another try.

Perseverance, however, does not mean stubborn. Course corrections are necessary even for Renaissance Men, and goals must constantly be reevaluated. He does not give up, but he does calibrate. If one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, the Renaissance Man knows that while he's doing the same thing over and over, the world may change and meet his solution at the nexus point.

Galileo, for instance, knew he would do no one any good, least of all himself, to be burnt at the stake. The world was not, perhaps, ready for his radical ideas in the 1600s, and so he recanted. After all, he had more to write before he died—including the book considered his masterpiece, Two New Sciences, which he wrote while under house arrest. ]CH8

CH9[ I am passionate

"Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

One of the most important attributes of the Renaissance Man is his passion: both the passion to make his vision a reality, and passion in enlisting others to support his ideas.

First, it takes passion to see an idea through to fruition, whether the idea is a new stove or a new nation. Passion drives the Renaissance Man forward in the face of risks, in spite of fear, no matter the obstacles, because of a faith in the concept and a certainty in the goal. Passion is the power to make things real. The connection between the existence and non-existence of something. Passion can be the emotional component that drives the Renaissance Man, even when all looks lost.

Then, when the Renaissance Man is ready to communicate his ideas to others, to convince them to invest in or work with him, he passes this passion on to them, in the process inspiring them. Michelangelo's passion inspired a Pope to give him a ceiling on which to paint his vision, while Imhotep convinced a Pharaoh to let him build the first pyramid. Today, Sir Richard Branson, Elon Musk and Yvon Chouinard proclaim their passion for protecting the environment.

People want to feel connected to a goal larger than themselves, one they truly believe in. A person who's passionate about a project will generally perform better than someone who is just going through the motions, even if they're both equally skilled. ]CH9

Excerpted from BEYOND GENIUSby Scott Griffiths Eric Elfman Copyright © 2012 by The Griffiths Organization. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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