By WALE AKINYEMI

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When the following names are mentioned, what comes to mind? Albert Einstein (for his groundbreaking work in physics), Leonardo da Vinci (for his contributions to art and science), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (for his prodigious musical talent) and many others like them are referred to as geniuses.

We recently discovered a Youtube channel belonging to a young lady called Ms Rachel. She has 6.85 million subscribers. Some of her videos have over 500 million views. Who watches her? Babies and toddlers. Yes, you read that right.

According to the description on her YouTube channel, she provides baby and toddler learning videos with a real teacher, Ms Rachel! She uses techniques recommended by speech therapists and early childhood experts to help children learn important milestones! Anyone watching her without knowing what she is doing will be tempted to think that she did not forget her childhood. That is precisely what happened.

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She may not be an Einstein or a Mozart but without doubt she is a genius. In the book Smart Thinking by Art Markman, there is the story of Lewis Terman who was a distinguished psychologist who lived in the early 20th century, He played a pivotal role in the development of IQ tests, forever changing the landscape of psychological assessment. His unwavering conviction in the predictive power of high IQ scores on individuals' future success spurred him to embark on a groundbreaking journey.

He administered IQ tests to a substantial cohort of children in a study that would span several years. Among the test-takers, a select group emerged, capturing Terman's attention due to their exceptional scores. This cohort, famously known as the "Termites", was heralded as a gathering of certified geniuses. Remarkably, some of these individuals did go on to achieve remarkable success in their respective careers. Yet, not all who excelled in life's pursuits were among the Termites.

To unravel the concept of genius, we will have to take a journey back into childhood. Some of the greatest achievers on the earth are people who saw their success come from things that already created a buzz in them when they were children. I call this the zone of natural flow. Everyone has a natural flow and a deep search reveals that people who are loyal to their natural flow, get rewarded by life. The problem is that we often despise what we have and over-estimate what we don't have.

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Dig and refine

Robert Greene says in the book Mastery that your power and future depend on reconnecting with your core and returning to your origin. He says, it is already there within you and that you just need to dig and refine what has been buried in you all along.

Most people however, abandon their genius for what they perceive will be a more accepted role and this has put a lot of people in misery. Life punishes those who are not faithful to their natural flow.

Now how does this relate to the workplace today? With a more enlightened and entitled younger generation, the issue of their core and natural flow is becoming a big deal in the workplace. People are leaving high paying jobs for lower paying jobs because the higher paying job does not connect with their natural flows.

An environment that does not take into account the natural flow of its team will never experience their genius. Everyone is a genius but there is an environment that activates the hidden genius and companies that are able to do this will lead the future.

Wale Akinyemi is the founder of the Street University [email protected]