There was a recent article about the genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart which quoted a letter he had allegedly written about how his fantastic music “just came to him” during pleasant times. To quote: “When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer; say traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly.” But, sad to say, this letter is a fake and Mozart never wrote it nor ever said such a thing. Insert large sigh here......
This article goes on to say just what 99% of us already know which is that most genius is just pureDee ol’ hard work. Creativity comes from trying, testing, thinking and, most of the times, experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t work. Many of us think that thinking is the hardest work of all. For the most part, I enjoy physical work. OK, OK, not as much now as 30+ years ago because most things are heavier now than when I was younger. I have no idea why companies make lawnmowers, shovels, bricks and like objects so heavy nowadays, but it sure seems as if they do.
The truth about Mozart, just as with any successful genius, is he worked very hard to get those beautiful compositions completed. Any good creative person can tell you how hard they work to be so creative. They take from their background, learning and training and figure out what pieces of their brain wave matches with what should be there. Unfortunately, I have had to have experience with different auto mechanics.  One can fairly well asses the mechanics knowledge and ability by the questions he asks. Then, a good mechanic listens and if you notice carefully, you can almost “see” his brain working as he listens to the motor or processes your given information. Then, bango! he makes a decision based on experience and work but to us who can no longer work on autos, it seems almost a miracle.
It is much the same in any field of work but, as a society, we do not give enough credit to those whose obvious “creative” powers come from hard work. In my chosen field, school instrumental music teacher, one can easily see the creative process at fruition. What one doesn’t see is the years of frustration, dedication and just plain hard work that got this group of youngsters to the point where they were well above good. At any concert contest or festival, other teacher’s schedule was set by when certain bands were to perform for the judges.
Those “good” bands all had men/women directors who put in the, to quote a phrase, “blood, sweat and tears.” Somehow they convinced American youngsters, age 13 - 18, that hard work paid off and the youngsters worked hard. The creativity came when the director’s brain told him/her: “this is not working for this piece of music, try this other thing.” And the glorious thing was that the music was so good almost all of the youngsters would remember it for maybe the rest of their life. They were personally involved in a great creative process that took long time to bring to a conclusion.
Much as Mozart did, genius artist did not suddenly look at a blank canvas and say, “I’m kinda bored today, I think I shall paint a masterpiece.” Nosir, again they used their experiences, knowledge and confidence to bring everything together. OK, I use confidence carefully because many writers, painters and musicians are among the most un-confident people in the world - on the outside. Those who are super confident, like drummer Buddy Rich, are over the top almost to the point of being obnoxious. Yes, I am being kind to him. Most genius people just say they will work harder.
Oh, I left out something important. Most geniuses can sense the atmosphere around them. They can bring all the factors together to produce something very special by being tuned to the world and how it works. Yes, I know, some of them don’t give a flip about what the world thinks and create something entirely new. Those are the people we will remember throughout history. We have to have them.
None of this is to say that just anybody can be a genius if they work hard or harder. Everyone is made differently (big surprise!) so some people’s brain waves don’t always match for some big project. But sometimes we all get some type of serendipitous moment and think/do/create something special.  I can believe a very large number of you/us have thought of something no one else has ever thought of. Didn’t it feel great?