Originally published April 4, 2014
Thomas Edison said, “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”
Before you think this column has turned into an article version of those motivational posters hanging in your high school guidance counselor’s office, think about it.
I can’t help but realize how much of our college careers and our dreams, ambitions and life plans are organized around the balance of two ideals: inspiration and perspiration.
It’s easier to be inspired, for sure. However, I still see peers unknowingly avoid environments that can foster inspiration. Maybe it’s because they don’t know where to look or how to determine what will be edifying. Maybe it’s because their eyes just aren’t open wide enough. Every day in one of your major classes can be an inspiration. Every professor, chapel speaker, friend, conversation, article, photograph, song or design piece can be an inspiration. But you have to be looking for them. Don’t force it, but place yourself in an environment in which you are always asking yourself, “What does this mean to me?” and “How can my work or my life reflect the way this makes me think or feel?” You have to consciously view the world in another way.
Perspiration is a little more stubborn and not quite as idealized. Still, it’s a vital part of creativity and innovation.
There is a misconception that all creative people are just born creative. They have one amazing idea that magically comes to fruition, and the rest of life is a cakewalk. If that’s what you think creativity is, it will be impossible to ever live up to that standard. Despite the supposed monotony, creativity flows directly from pure and simple hard work. There is no way around that; 99 percent of genius is perspiration. So let’s get to work.
Your best idea isn’t just going to appear out of nowhere. You are going to have to slave over white blank pages for quite a while before something worth working with actually appears. Some of the most creative and prolific novelists spend hours of their day writing. Most of the time, it’s just writing for the sake of writing. Isaac Asimov, author of the sci-fi classic “I, Robot” (among the 500 books he has written or edited), allegedly churned out 2,000-4,000 words per day, working 10 hours a day and seven days a week. Only occasionally would this type of quantity-over-quality writing be something special that made its way into the pages of a book.
Once you have something special, don’t even begin to think you’ve reached the end game. Creativity and production are a process, and the sooner you figure that out, the less frustrating that process will be. I’m reminded of a tweet I saw from Mat Kearney the other day about the new album he is working on: “You’re making a record when: a) you’ve worn sweatpants for a month. b) coffee is food. c) your friends think you’ve moved. d) all dem.”
Dedication to the execution of ideas is the main goal within the whole process of creativity and production. The execution is going to be difficult and messy and not as much fun, but it’s absolutely necessary. Being able to thoroughly and elegantly carry out an idea is a skillset all its own, so hunker down and start thinking logistics.
