I’m obsessed with documentaries on geniuses (Newton, Franklin, Edison, etc.) and how and why they were able to accomplish what they did. I’ve learned that many of them tend to have the following five common denominators:
1. Focus – They have an incredible ability to stay focused in what they do. They don’t get distracted easily during their studies or experiments. In fact, they can focus on material for hours at a time.
2. Think outside the box – They think about the issue at hand differently than the rest of us. In other words, they ask questions which others are not thinking. While the rest of us are just parroting what others are saying around us, these guys just ignore that completely and bring up other questions to think about which no one is asking. They think about the issue at hand from a different angle.
3. Curiosity – They are extremely curious in nature. It is said that Edison as a child once sat on unhatched eggs for hours on end just to see what would happen. They are obsessed with how things work and why do they work the way they do.
4. Consistency – They are consistent in their pursuits. These guys don’t give up and just keep going until they figure it out. They are almost stubborn with their drive to get it done.
5. Natural spark of genius – They have a God given gift of internal intuition into things.
There may be other factors as well but above is what I personally have been able to collect and determine as common factors among them.
I am a Pakistani-American Muslim blogger. I hold a B.S. in Information Technology and a B.A. in Islamic Studies. I am also a follower and a student of the Hanbali school of Islamic law. Read more