I’ve been dipping into Robin Sharma’s book, The Greatness Guide. It’s an interesting book, made up of 101 “chapters” that read an awful lot like very inspirational blog posts.

The book covers the a ton of things - everything from success and leadership to happiness.

Today, Chapter 16 caught my eye: “Know Your Genius”:

Genius is not the sole domain of a rare breed of person. Both you and I are entitled to that label and to play in that space - if we so choose. Here’s the big idea: Focus on any area or skill with a relentless devotion to daily improvement and a passion for excellence and within three to five years, you will be operating at a level of competence (and insight) such that people call you a genius. Focus plus daily improvement plus time equals genius. Understand that formula deeply and your life will never be the same.

That’s quite a succinct formula, and as I type this, I’m thinking about where I would like to achieve genius. Or maybe the better question is, what area or skill am I interested in to the extent that I could devote three to five years of my focus?

The key here, I think, is passion. Sharma talks about a passion for excellence, but I really think that you need a passion for the subject itself. Without that passion, it would be so difficult to achieve the formula of “focus plus daily improvement plus time”.

Focus is hard work … unless you’re focusing on something about which you’re passionate, something that excites you, something that doesn’t feel very much like hard work all the time.

So, while I like his formula, I’d throw passion in there, too.