Genius isn’t something you are, it’s something you do. Everyone has genius, but few have the courage and tenacity to reach it, empower it, and release it into the world, largely because you will be punished for doing so. Genius is not valued, respected, or desired by the denizens of Planet Earth, since it reminds them of their own cowardice in taking the easy and safe road of banality.
“If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius, which are certainly true, he sees not to what extremes, or even insanity, it may lead him; and yet that way, as he grows more resolute and faithful, his road lies. The faintest assured objection which one healthy man feels will at length prevail over the arguments and customs of mankind. No man ever followed his genius till it misled him. Though the results were bodily weakness, yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be regretted, for these were a life in conformity with higher principles.” — Henry David Thoreau, Walden