Orson Welles directed the greatest movie ever made, Citizen Kane, at the young age of 25 with limited knowledge of the medium. At 25, Paul McCartney and his fellow Beatles released the era-defining album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. By 29, Pablo Picasso revolutionized modern art with cubism.
If these stories trigger an existential panic because you feel like you wasted your 20s on reality TV and graduate school, don’t fret—you’re not necessarily a failure.
In his video essay The Long Game, Adam Westbrook highlights the journey of Leonardo da Vinci who painted The Last Supper at the age of 46 after facing setbacks in his youth from unfinished projects. Every successful creative goes through a period of struggle, known as “The Difficult Years,” even child prodigies like Mozart.
In essence, “genius” is more about perseverance than innate talent. The key is to keep working. This message may not be as romantic as the idea of a natural-born genius, but it offers hope for those who haven’t achieved major success yet.
You can watch Westbrook’s video essay in parts above.
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Jonathan Crow is a writer and filmmaker whose work has appeared in Yahoo!, The Hollywood Reporter, and other publications. You can follow him on @jonccrow.
