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Inspiration vs. Perspiration

A Light Bulb Moment on Edison's Creative Genius

By Chris Dunmire, CoachingYourCreativity.com

Thank goodness for Thomas Edison. This passionate man credited with having a hand in awesome life-changing inventions (such as the phonograph, light bulb, and telephone) AND having multiple electrical, mechanical, and chemical patents behind his name left us with an incredible insight about genius. Yes, he declared the famous:

"Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration."

When I first read that quote I thought, hey, that's great news for those of us who used to think that in order to be a genius, you had to be born that way. And if you take Edison's above quote at face value, you can interpret genius as a penny flash of a inspiration followed by 99 cents of good ol' fashioned hard work and elbow grease.

But then I thought... did that eager Edison ever consult a dictionary before making that declaration? I mean, I'm sure he didn't anticipate that every future creativity enthusiast out there would hold his luminous life to high heaven AND go on to use his famous quote in their Toastmaster speeches, innovation seminars, brainstorming sessions, and invention workbooks. But they have. And they will. You know, I feel that everyone is quote-worthy, but heck, because of Edison's genius, he could call you up on his two-way TELEGRAPH and whisper his indelible quotes into your ear!

I don't know if they had Webster's in the mid-1800s, but the reason why I brought up the dictionary thing is because I just cracked mine open for kicks and looked up the word genius. Here's what it says:

ge-nius \ tutelary spirit, natural inclinations 1 : an attendant spirit of a person or place; also : a person who influences another for good or evil 2 : a strong leaning or inclination 3 : a peculiar or distinctive character or spirit 4 : SPIRIT, GENIE: a single strongly marked capacity or aptitude 6 : extraordinary intellectual power; also : a person having such power syn gift, faculty, flair, knack, talent

That's interesting. Why isn't there anything about inspiration or perspiration in there? Hey, there's no percentages either. "Natural inclinations", "a single strongly marked capacity or aptitude", "extraordinary intellectual power", Edison! My hopes for working towards genius level with 99% sweat and 1% sweet-spiration have just been dashed. Or have they?

Continuous Improvements

If there's anyone in the world that I would listen to about what the concept of genius means — at least in a creative sense — Edison would be my man. Not only was he a Wizard (of Menlo Park), but he's helped us all to see in the dark in more ways than one (though he didn't invent the first light bulb, he invented the first "commercially practical" incandescent light). However interestingly, Edison's inventions were largely improvements made upon existing products. Yes, building upon existing ideas is also a form of genius — creative genius. I bet that's what his quote is really about.

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© 2007 Chris Dunmire, CoachingYourCreativity.com. All rights reserved. (02/23/07). Please do not duplicate this article elsewhere without my permission.

About the Author
Chris Dunmire is the author of the Dollar Bill Origami Money Plant and driving force behind the popular Creativity Portal Web site. She finds meaning as an artist, humorist, and creativity coach and channels her overactive imagination into multiple containers on display at ChrisDunmire.com.