Thomas Edison is often quoted as saying “genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” The person
uttering the remark typically is trying to remind you that innovating depends much less on being inspired, and much more – ninety-nine times more – on slugging it out and putting in the hours.
Inspiration vs Perspiration: Did Edison have it wrong?
But is this really true? A common trait of all the great innovators is that inspiration was much more than just a tiny 1% of their life. Quite the contrary, inspiration drove everything they did. Their inspiration was the fuel that kept them going. It drove their ‘perspiration.’ Steve Jobs said so himself in 2005 in his Commencement Address at Stanford. Referring to moments in his life when the going got tough, he said “I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love.” It was passion – or inspiration, or whatever you want to call it – that fueled the hard work.
So what should we make of the usual Edison ‘inspiration versus perspiration’ quote? If you look at the origin of the two words, that they actually come from the same root – spirare in latin, meaning “to breathe.” Spirare is also the root of “spirit,” as in your spirit or things from the realm of the spiritual. Inspiration, thus, is “in” + spirare, meaning to breathe in – or the idea that spirit itself is breathing new ideas into you. Perspiration is “per” + spirare, which literally means to “breathe through.” In this sense, both words are connected to the idea of spirit, the spirit within you.
Another word that describes your desire to innovate or change is aspiration. When you aspire to do or become something, that idea also is from the latin spirare. Aspiration is made from “a” + spirare, and is thus also linked to the idea of spirit. When you aspire to do or become something, it’s akin to being inspired: something has resonated with your spirit.
Even the word respiration comes from the latin spirare, and indeed the act of breathing itself has long been considered an action linked to spirit. This is why meditation involves breathing exercises: your breathing is thought to be directly connected to your spirit.
In this light, when we are inspired by a particular project or purpose, should we really think of the ‘perspiration’ as somehow unconnected to being inspired? Jobs was right: it’s the being inspired that leads you to put in the long hours, the perspiration.
That same lesson is found in the lives of virtually every accomplished innovator. Yes they put in the hard work, but it was work they were inspired to do in the first place. It was the inspiration that kept them going.
We surely, then, need to revisit how we use the famous Edison quote: it’s actually the inspiration that makes the perspiration possible.
D.G.
(Next post on Friday … till then, D.G.)
