Genius makes a virtue of its limitations

Recently my wife had an allergic reaction which affected her eyes for several weeks. Her eyelids became red and swollen; not the ideal look for someone who serves in a public relations role and who is often the face of the company to the clients she works with. The malady, in typical fashion, did not deter my wife. She just passed off the condition as eyes highlighted with red mascara and coordinated her outfits to better match her new look. My wife is genius like that – she has a knack for turning lemons into lemonade, trash into treasure and adversity into advantage.

Her particular talents made me think of the observation “Genius makes a virtue of it’s limitations” that I read in a Montclair Times newspaper review by Eric Levin of a Bob Dylan concert. The review marveled how Dylan, even though his voice was “magnificently ravaged” by time and use and was limited to singing his songs using only two notes, was able to compensate for this limitation by adjusting the song arrangement and the lyric phrasing to mesmerizing effects until his voice became “two states of energy, hopping back and forth like electrons shifting orbits”.

Bob Dylan Poster – Art Courtesy of Milton Glaser

History is full of remarkable people like Bob, who not only overcome their limitations to do important work – but are also able to transform their limitations into virtues instead of letting them become impediments to their success.

Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder used their lack of sight to produce visionary new music. Helen Keller could not see or hear yet she became an influential author, lecturer and champion of women’s causes and of people with disabilities. Steve Jobs was given up for adoption, struggled with traditional schooling and was a  college dropout – yet he revolutionized both the computer and entertainment industries. Alan Turing channeled the persecution and stigma of being a gay man in the 1940’s by pioneering the field of computing and cracking the Nazi military encryption codes that helped the Allies to win World War II.

The great majority of us will never know or understand what it means to be a genius – they are a rare breed of people that are so gifted they seem to remain in existence separate from the rest of us.

But even though we can’t all be geniuses there is one trait we can try to adopt that all geniuses seem to share – and that is to not let our limitations prevent us from pursuing our callings. We too, if we are creative, can overcome our life’s challenges and discover ways that we can turn our limitations into strength. If we all did that, life would be a lot more interesting and fulfilling.