We live in a world where members of society are labeled as if they were merely products destined for store shelves, to be selected or discarded according to someone’s needs. The society we live in either condemns or glorifies you based on the label you possess. From the moment we start school, we are categorized by grades, and those symbols become our burdens. We start to believe that our intelligence is measured by the number of excellent grades we get, and that belief tends to shape our reality. However, the truth is that everyone is a genius, each with our own unique characteristics and skills, and that’s what makes us special.

We are all the same: we are human, we are mortal. Yet, we are also different, each of us with distinct personalities, characteristics, skills, qualities, beliefs, and opinions. These differences create unique individuals, much like human fingerprints—seemingly similar but each with its own distinctive pattern. For that reason, we all possess particular talents and skills that make us different kinds of geniuses. Therefore, genius cannot be described in a single way but in many ways.

All my life, I struggled to find my own talent. In school, I wasn’t the student with the best grades; I didn’t even know who I wanted to be or what I wanted to do when I grew up. Often, I lost faith in myself and let my future rest in the hands of luck. The problem is that society has led us to believe that if you’re not the best, the most intelligent, or the one with the top grades, you will fail miserably. This belief puts enormous pressure on us, and in our attempts to avoid failure, we often push ourselves in unhealthy ways, refusing to be who we were meant to be and instead becoming the type of person society imposes upon us in order to be “successful.”

“Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.” – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The truth is that defining a genius as someone with only certain specific characteristics and abilities limits the true greatness in every human being. By doing so, we marginalize those who don’t possess those particular traits, leading them to believe they are simply mediocre. This, in turn, limits their true potential. For example, I always believed that because I wasn’t good at school—especially in mathematics—I was good for nothing. I wished I could be like the “genius” ones. I lost faith in myself and settled for a life far less than what I deserved.

One day, I started to believe in myself, and I discovered talents and skills that had been overshadowed by my fears, beliefs, and limiting thoughts. When I stopped letting the opinions and beliefs of others define me, I began to discover my true potential. Once you are no longer constrained by society’s standards, you begin to redefine yourself and create a new version of who you are. In my case, I discovered the things that make me a genius. Now, I don’t let my lack of knowledge in a particular area or my poor skills in math or history define me. I don’t let a grade or another person categorize me according to my capabilities.

“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

When you stop seeking the approval of others, when you free yourself from the stress of fitting in, when you cease trying to be who you are “supposed” to be, and when you stop worrying about being “perfect” or allowing others’ opinions to define you, you will have the opportunity to discover your true talents, abilities, and skills. So, don’t aim to become society’s standard of human perfection; instead, aim for what you are good at. If you don’t know what that is, go find it, work hard, improve, evolve, and become the best version of yourself!

Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t do everything perfectly. Remember that every human has their own talents and skills, and in the end, everyone is a genius. A fish may not be able to climb a tree, but it has the ability to live underwater. So, don’t compare yourself to other people’s “genius,” but rather, follow your own heart, be whoever you want to be, discover your greatness, and be the genius that you truly are!