The Heart Thing

The inventor of the light bulb, Thomas Edison, famously said that "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent persperation." We better listen since he was speaking from experience; it's said he failed over ninenty times before he cracked the winning formulae for his most popular invention.

Ugandan artist Ssajjabi poses with one of his paintings. 

Yet natural genius, also known as talent, will always play a central role in the business of life. The ease with which Barcelona's Suarez, Neymar and Messi tore Juventus to pieces to win the Champions League trophy last Saturday demonstrated as much. They are not the most hardworking striking trio in club soccer but they certainly are the most gifted. Suarez single-handedly almost won Liverpool the Premier League trophy before

he caught the eye of Barcelona. Neymar's Brazilian magic is difficult to describe. My brother Julius says of Messi, "The short little Argentinian is extravagantly talented and absolutely lethal. It can only take a miracle to stop him; only miracles defy logic."

Which brings me to the point of this piece. However hard working or talented you are, there's always somebody somewhere more hardworking, more gifted, more handsome/beautiful, more educated and more experienced than you. The trick therefore is not to focus on the competition but to do whatever you do with all your heart. The country song, "Come from the Heart", is famous for these lyrics: "You've got to sing like you don't need the money/Love like you'll never get hurt/ You've got to dance like nobody's is watchin'/ It's gotta come from the heart if you want it to work."

When you apply these lyrics, you will never get distracted like people who try to write like someone, dress like someone, speak like someone or sing like someone except themselves. In the process they lose their individuality and the distinction which they are born, thereby impeding the ripening of their full potential.