Inspiration vs. Perspiration

“Genius is 99% perspiration, 1% inspiration” – Edison.

No one ever trumped Edison in inventions: he had 1,000+ patents in his name. To him, creativity was overrated; he attributed his genius to industrialization of R&D. 100s of researchers slogged for hours just changing a minute thing and doing the same experiment over and over again. If they were bored or tired, Edison quipped the “Eureka” was to follow in their next experiment.

No one ever trumped Bradman in quicksilver wrists and hand eye coordination. Legend goes that he gained these as a kid by a solo, self-invented game in his backyard. He had an old 800-gallon iron water tank in the back yard against which he used to bounce a golf ball continuously with one stump. The ball darted back at very high speed and unpredictable angles (the tank wasn’t perfectly round). Boring to many, he became so perfect at it that he just didn’t miss for hours.

At OfBusiness too, we face this conundrum a lot and find it tough to manage. Young men get bored when they reach 9/10 on the job. The extra effort to reach and stay at 10/10 just isn’t satisfying enough. They feel the need to do new things. That 1/10, though, is worth its weight in gold. It separates the good from great for both them and the company.