“Most Geniuses Remain Unrecognized”

          Presenter: Dick Stetler – November 8, 2021

    During my lifetime, I have had the pleasure of meeting or knowing countless unrecognized geniuses. What reveals this quality to me comes from observing what such people are capable of doing.  The way each surfaces their inner-genius happens when they follow-through on a vocation that gives them the most sense of accomplishment.

    A young woman insisted on attending an ivy-league university.    Her goal was to pursue a career in accounting. Why?  Her mind told her that such a degree would offer her security and a lovely financial package.  She graduated among the top students in her academic field.  After months of searching, she eventually secured a job with Disney. 

    She enthusiastically called her parents to announce her employment.  Her dad asked, “Tell us about your new job?”  She said, “I am dressing up as Pluto.  I love it, particularly I enjoy the responses of the children to my character.” Her feelings interfered with her mind’s logic. In his diary, her father wrote, “This news was like driving a Rolls Royce off a cliff for four years.  However, if playing Pluto makes her happy, that is all that matters to us.”  She was happy because her inner world was driving her to find what gave her life meaning.  Suddenly crunching numbers lost its appeal.

    I knew a man whose teachers had labeled him throughout his education as being intellectually challenged. He inherited a parcel of land that bordered a State Game Preserve.  Given his circumstances, he made a ridiculous decision.  He decided to build his dream home by himself.  He had no training to become a carpenter, a painter, an electrician, a plumber, a glazer, or a roofer.  I asked him, “What did you do with the rule of carpentry of measuring twice and cutting once?”  He said:

I never heard that but doing so makes good sense.  I have never measured anything. Over there is my scrap woodpile.  I think I did just fine with my estimations.  I measure with my eyes.

    I saw very little waste on that pile.  It took him three years to build his home. He had a dream.  I could not believe what my eyes revealed.  He had no blueprints, no advice from an architect, and no help from anyone.  He did have a pile of books about building your own home.  His level of skill and his knowhow were those of a highly trained craftsman.  His finished product was absolutely remarkable.           

    I met a successful businessman.  While visiting him in his office, I watched him take his index finger and run it down a column of seven-figure numbers and put a total. I asked, “How can you do that without a calculator?”  He said, “I don’t know.  I just can.”

    He went on to tell me that when a company comes into the bank to secure a loan, he is the one who tells the decision-makers of the bank which loan requests are worth considering, which ones were a high risk, and which ones were totally fabricating their figures. The spreadsheets of each company tell him everything he needs to know before the bank makes a decision. 

    Charles Baddage (1791-1871) was a mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer.  He was an Englishman who is relatively unknown but he created the concept of a digital programmable computer.  He is known by many as the father of the computer. Oscar J. Simler invented the turning signals along with numerous other signals for cars.  Robert Bowling invented fire-place logs from pressing saw-dust and other wood scraps into the shape of logs in 1930.

    Machiavelli said that we all can't be great people, but we can copy them.  This is what has happened throughout history.  What separates a genius from other people is that they use their imaginations constantly to solve problems. Others stay with what is because that is the way it has always been done. 

    The genius sows a seed.  The wind can carry that seed to fertile soil where it becomes a tomato plant.  Inside that seed is a white powder that contains all the instructions for producing tomatoes. Most kitchen-engineers take this knowledge for granted by not thinking about it.  This is how an idea from some unknown person can spring to life and flood the world with hybrid tomatoes.

    Archimedes (287-212 BC) is a very recognized name.  He was a Greek mathematician, inventor, astronomer, engineer, and physicist.  Who was teaching him all of these disciplines?  Do we suppose that there were teachers that educated him?  Really?  We would be somewhat uninformed if we thought so. It was his curiosity to seek answers for everything that stimulated his drive to unlock what was known. 

    At 18, he traveled to Alexandria, Egypt to study in its library.  The mathematic calculations needed to build the pyramids fascinated him.  They were coming from early geniuses who furnished the precise measurements as well as how to move the massive 2.3 million stones that weighed from 2.5 to over 15 tons.  

    He invented the pulley among a host of many creations.  He was a pure-genius who was virtually unknown outside of Syracuse during his lifetime.  A Roman soldier murdered him for his refusal to obey his command.  We have countless people who remain unknown that copied and improved applications for inventions for use by future generations. He left the world a virtual treasure-trove of creations upon which others have built civilizations. 

    It is a challenge to imagine how the teachings of Jesus survived?  Think about it.  There were no scribes during his lifetime that copied his sayings. There were only scrolls, no printing presses, and no one to market Jesus’ teachings. He taught the Golden Rule’s many components and sowed the seed that the potential for every living soul is inside of them at birth. To accent his teaching, he called the world within us, The Kingdom of God. 

    He did so while living in one of the most obscure places in the world.  Nazareth was no major center of commerce like Athens, Rome, or Alexandria.  He died not knowing if anything he taught would survive.  Little did he know that many of his teachings would survive by those who remembered what he said.  Everything we know about Jesus was coming from the memory of others.  His verbal seeds had found fertile ground.

    However, knowing everything Jesus taught does not perfect our lives. The greatest thing we can do is listen to the still small voice within us urging us to be in the helping professions, or a mystery writer, or a computer technician. A genius will follow that voice not knowing where it will lead them. Pastors define this voice as their being called by God. The plausibility of such a claim is like attributing to God the responsibility of bringing men and women together prior to their marriage.  If this is true, God is wrong 41 percent of the time due to the divorce rate of first marriages in the United States. 

    Yes, for many college students, it is like driving a Rolls Royce off a cliff for four years. Over half of the graduates are employed in a field that does not require a college education.  Today, companies hire people who patiently learn and adapt to the culture of the company. A college degree will not provide what must be learned by working. What no one or company can give to people is a desire to grow the spirit by which they live.

    If an individual can harness and embody loving-energy-in-motion they often can go anywhere they wish.  Companies hunger to hire people they can trust, who bring enthusiasm to what they do, and care about the quality of their work.  Everyone has the potential to create an art form in what they accomplish. Not everyone tries to do this.  Those people who can are happy and contented with what they do.  It is not what people do that matters; what matters is the spirit in their doing.  Such people are happy to sign their name to each task they perform.

    Each one of us comes totally equipped to be a success, but as Jesus taught, “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find, and knock and the door will open.”  (Matthew 7:7) Only human curiosity will enable people to find a treasure chest buried in a field.  (Matthew 13:44). 

    When people create value by what they do, they are sowing seeds that will benefit others simply by making visible their energy wherever life takes them. Jesus did this by sowing verbal seeds that have taken root and sprouted all over the world.  In time, more people will develop this understanding and begin giving value to what they do. Such people are those whose genius may remain unknown, but their contributions will be copied by others.