The Long Game Of Success - Why Leonardo Da Vinci Was No Genius

Delve just delivered one of the best video essays I've probably seen in years in regards to the pursuit of success, and the distorted modern definition of it. This analysis of highly successful figures over the years, with an emphasis on Leonardo Da Vinci's tumultuous rise to fame actually answered a question I'd wondered about for a long time.

Over the last few decades it's become a well established norm propagated by the media that getting to a certain age without accomplishing everything is the end of the line. Even today I had a conversation in passing about someone saying that they couldn't believe they were turning 30, which really made me wonder how society had come to stigmatize aging as having a negative impact with one's own success.

This analysis did an amazing job pointing out how even history itself gleans on every successful persons 'long game,' a period of struggle lasting anywhere from 5-15 years before finally having a grand breakthrough. Everyone from Harrison Ford to Richard Branson shared this same trait, and in the grand scheme of things it seems like we've all forgotten about the fact that it takes a lot of struggle, and time to get successful. There are exceptions to this rule of course, but society seems to put a lot more stock in those few rather than the more common route.

The Long Game of Success really hit home with me, especially my lingering feelings after working in a Silicon Valley startup for a year prior to quitting. Everyone talked about their dreams of hitting it big overnight, getting bought out hastily by a large company, IPO's in record times..The pressure of seeing a few getting rich quick, and ultra young was a pervasive mentality that people embraced in that interesting bubble. Shaving off ten years of my life in an ultra stressful environment for a chance to cash in some stock options was cool and all, but I guess after watching this video I finally have an answer: I'm a believer in the long game.

To all our readers who are struggling, yet powering through the hard times- This really is a must watch. Check out part 2 after the break.



All of history's greatest figures achieved success in almost exactly the same way. But rather than celebrating this part of the creative process we ignore it.

This missing chapter in the story of success reveals the secret to doing meaningful work. But in the modern world, full of distraction, do we have what it takes to do great things?