Is Genius born or made?
Do you know what genius is? The idea of genius is socially constructed and not, in any meaningful sense, scientific. People speak about a “genius-level IQ,” but the IQ test measures disability and “giftedness”—not genius status—and it does so in a very imperfect and general way (Head, 2015). Psychologists still grind away (sometimes at each other) at explaining what genius is, and where it comes from. The effort, now weary and tendentious, was exciting in its earlier days (Abrahams, 2009). The important issue that people still try to seek out is how the genius forms. There are various discussions which argue that geniuses are made or born; nevertheless, the most acceptable reason is geniuses are made actually.
Geniuses are made, not born indeed. Genuine creative achievements depend more on perseverance over the long haul than on prodigious childhood skills. We cannot all be geniuses but we can learn from them. What makes geniuses special is their long-term commitment. They struggle very hard and they keep on persisting. They enjoy their work. They excel at concentrating and persevering. Their efforts are focused, and all geniuses have a firm sense of direction (Hartley-Brewer, 2000).
On the other hands, “Genius must be born, and never can be taught,” said John Dryden (1693/1885), the English dramatist. Genius is born. Human beings display tremendous individual differences in what he called “natural ability.” this term meant something a bit more complex than just intelligence. In any large human population, natural ability would be distributed according to the normal, or bell-shaped curve (Galton, 1869).
However, Genius is largely the result of hard work, rather than an inspired flash of insight. Edison is first reported as saying "Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration" sometime around 1902, in the September 1932 edition of Harper's Monthly Magazine (Phrase Finder is copyright Gary Martin, 2015).