Hard work vs genius

Would we have good music, art, or technology if people
didn't work hard for them?

It may sound cliché, but there's no such thing as a genius innovator. Edison, Ford, Einstein, Jobs, and many others brought about genially fresh ideas and they worked really hard. Edison tried hundreds of times before successfully designing a decent lightbulb, Ford was obsessed with cost savings, Einstein was considered inapt for mathematics as a child, and Jobs loved simplicity. What do these innovators from different eras have in common? They all had a strong vision but they all worked hard to achieve their goals.

I don't mean to say that there's no such thing as a good idea; there are tons of ideas out there, most of them excellent. I'm just saying a good idea is completely worthless unless you can execute it. I'm sure that hundreds of people thought of simplifying technology long before Jobs thought of it, but nobody did it. An idea is only the foundation of any effort, a direction for work.

I must add that without an idea, hard work is also worthless. Everyone's met someone who seems to have potential but never achieves it; the accomplished artist who never makes any money, the manager with a Midas touch that never started his/her own business, the genius who likes to work but never lived up to expectations. Without a direction, your efforts don't take you anywhere.

As an individual, ask yourself whether you have a clear direction and if you're working hard enough to get there. If you have an organization, make sure you've communicated your objectives to all employees and they are all motivated to move you in that direction. If you want to be an innovator, you need to know what boundaries you want to push and then you have to push hard enough.

Which companies do you think have a clearer vision about their innovations? Know what boundaries you want to push, how you want to push them, and invest in pushing hard enough.