We Live in the Age of the Growing Brain

If we look back on human history, one question has always returned like a refrain:“Are geniuses born, or are they made?”

The ancient Greeks believed that divine fire touched only a chosen few. During the Renaissance, talent was seen as a gift of grace from the gods. Yet today, neuroscience gently dismantles these old myths. Even Einstein, Mozart, and Newton were not thrown into the world as predestined prodigies. They were human beings—who, through countless trials and unrelenting focus, carved their own pathways in the brain.

In fact, those born with truly exceptional brains make up less than 0.001% of humanity. The other 99.999% begin from a similar starting line. What separates them is not divine favor, but how fiercely one navigates the vast ocean of the mind.

The belief that the brain is fixed, unchangeable, belongs to the shadows of the last century. We live now in the age of the growing brain, an era of infinite adaptability. Neuroscience calls this ability neuroplasticity: the brain’s power to reshape itself through thought, habit, challenge, and even failure.

And yet, so many remain trapped in the old dichotomy:“Am I someone who can, or someone who cannot?”This question is nothing less than a chain, narrowing our possibilities, keeping us at the threshold of achievement without ever crossing it.

But the moment we awaken to the brain’s astonishing adaptability, life changes. We can leap even into fear, we can smile even in the face of hardship, because difficulty itself becomes the spark that forges new pathways. Adversity no longer breaks us—it builds us.

Geniuses are not born.Geniuses make themselves.

And this path is not reserved for the chosen few.It is a road open to us all.