No Perfect People: Beethoven, Gordy, And Steve Jobs

No Perfect People
Critic, Oscar Wide, stated that, “The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.” To understand this quote the definition of a genius must be established and understood. In America there’s a central idea that a genius is an extremely clever or intellectual human being; however, we sometimes misinterpret that definition. Many Americans mistake the word genius to mean someone who is incapable of making mistakes. The truth is that most of the people who have been marked as geniuses have made a number of significant mistakes in their individual careers. Beethoven, Napoleon Bonaparte, Berry Gordy, and Steve Jobs are all brilliant minds that most people can agree are geniuses, but people do not recognize
Although his music thrived during the Classical Age: he made great mistakes during his career that would leave several people in disbelief. His music was composed and performed so gracefully that it is almost impossible to mention the words “mistake” and “Beethoven” in the same sentence. As a result of acquiring fame at a young age Beethoven became so egotistic that he began to believe himself to be incapable of making mistakes, along with the rest of the world. Before he became exceptionally great he had mentors who were older that him who tried to teach him ways to become even more successful, but Beethoven ignored them. His arrogance and assumed superiority left Beethoven making the very mistake he thought he was incapable of. After ignoring the advice of his elders Beethoven continued to composed a series of unrevised string quartets that he played and was talked about for being “scandalous and incomprehensible” (Bergamini 48). This was a setback for him because it lowered his self-esteem and it took him a while to compose string quartets again. His downfall demonstrated that being a genius in certain areas does not make you a genius in all areas. He later revised the pieces and they became successful works of art. But, Beethoven had to learn from his mistakes to realize that he was capable of making
He named the label Motown; it was established in Detroit, Michigan in 1959. Early on it seemed like Motown produced all of the great artist and performers of that time. Some of the few great artists signed to the label were: Smokie Robinson, Diana Ross, the Jackson Five, The Temptations and Stevie Wonder. Motown produced hundreds of hit single early into its existence. Number one hits by Motown artists thrived during the prime age of Motown but, to get to this point Gordy had to learn from one of his few mistakes. Before Gordy’s career really began to thrive he opened a jazz store called the “3-D Record Mart.” Ignorant to the fact that blacks in Detroit were not interested in jazz music, the record mart went bankrupt after two years. Another slight mistake Gordy made was something he did not do intentionally. Because of Gordy’s “tight control” many of his signed artist started to venture off. The first to leave was Gladys Knight followed by the Jackson Five (both of which became millionaires). Although Barry Gordy was and still is one of the greatest musical geniuses and entrepreneurs of all time he still made mistakes that he had to learn from to become