More than 500 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci, painter, sculptor, architect, engineer and anatomist, was already recognized as a genius of his time. Today everyone would say that we know his art works well, a little less about his life, but probably even less about what made his genius.
We are fascinated by this exceptional mind and wanted to understand what are the fundamental principles of Leonard’s genius that we can all be inspired by in our daily lives.
And it is the answer to this question that we wish to share with you in the hope that it may serve you, as much as it serves us today.
A mixture between science, art and technique
For the realization of his paintings or sculptures, Leonardo often pushed his preliminary studies much further than was necessary. These studies could last several months before Leonardo started painting. But in fact, this is one of the most important keys to his genius. His ability to paint reality grew in dexterity and precision as he blended his different skills.
In the same way, we must all dare to leave our comfort zones to combine, like Leonard, science, art, and technique. Let’s push ourselves to cross the boundaries between the different worlds of the company as much as necessary: IT, marketing, HR, finance.
An acute ability to observe
Leonard possessed an uncommon ability to observe. He was able to distinguish the differences in behavior of the wings of a dragonfly above the moat of Ludovico Sforza’s castle. This was a permanent effort on his part and not an intellectual miracle. What particularly enchanted Leonardo was the discovery of similarities in form, such as between a curl of hair and a swirl of water. His faculties of observation and imagination intertwine to constitute the framework of his genius.
This talent was also nourished by another of his abilities… curiosity.
An instatiable curiosity
If there was only one quotation to remember from Leonard it would be:
“Be curious, relentlessly curious”.
Einstein even said,
“I have no special talent, I’m just particularly curious.”
Leonard’s curiosity extends beyond his immediate environment to a universal stage. He seeks no less than to understand all of creation and the place that man occupies in it. This is how he calculates the distance between the Earth and the Moon or how he notes in his “todolist” to better study the behavior of the language of the woodpecker.
A tongue which, for the anecdote, is of an excessive length compared to the dimensions of the head of the woodpecker. But it allows to absorb considerably the shocks of the violent beaks that the bird gives to the tree and to protect its brain.
So we can only encourage you to do the same in your life! You too should be curious about the world around you. Open up to others, be interested in the evolution of your market, your competitors, or simply in the jobs of your colleagues.
A knowledge built on a mixture of theory and experimentation
It was because of his very rudimentary schooling that Leonardo had the freedom to forge his knowledge through experimentation. Leonardo often rejected the preconceived ideas of others. But he realized that a solid theoretical foundation was also necessary. Thus he was strongly influenced by his readings for the drawing of the anatomy of his figures.
In business, we often give too much credit to well-presented theoretical methods, whereas we should pay more attention to the advice of those who combine concrete field experience with a good theoretical vision of a business. We detail even more this approach in our vision for our courses.
A certain level of uncertainty is necessary
The contours of reality are blurred by essence. And Leonard used a very special technique to blur the contours “the sfumato”. It allowed reproducing the same effect of diffraction of the light. But this technique contains a much deeper message: no border is fixed, delimited, or clearly defined. There is always a part of doubt, of uncertainty.
It is the same in business or your life; whether you are managing a project, a program, or the digital transformation of a company, you must accept the part of uncertainty and assumptions that will always surround your estimates and your schedules.
Ideas that mature thanks to procrastination
This is not a call for procrastination on our part. The one that Leonardo promotes is an intense period of intellectual reflection during which he plans the best way to realize his work. Leonardo explains to Ludovico Sforza, who complains about his slowness, that “ambitious men and geniuses sometimes achieve their greatest works when they work the least” 🙂 … And we could apply this maxim right now and stop writing this article, but he adds “because their minds are taken up with their ideas and the perfection of their conceptions, which they then give form to”.
So we will take the time to conclude. 🙂
Through the sublime richness of his works left to posterity, Leonardo da Vinci addresses us with simple and universal truths to understand the source of his genius. We say “simple” because it does not take more than willpower and openness to reach the principles of his genius. What counts is the daily effort that each of us can make, whether in our professional or personal lives, to move in the direction that Leonard has left us.
Finally, we could not end this article without quoting Leonard one last time and just because it’s beautiful:
“We do not lack the tools to measure the miserable days that we should have the pleasure of not wasting to leave us a memory in the minds of men”.
About us
We are a collective of experts providing online & offline courses in digital marketing and digital transformation for future/current professionals
Our mission is to help you get the skills you need in digital to achieve two things:
- Get job-ready for the current work market
- Build your business autonomously
We ‘ve included in all our courses three key components: practices, real-life examples, and illustrative theory.