Your Brilliance Is Not Fading – It’s Unfolding

“Real innovation is not always fast or flashy; it is often layered, embodied, and slow burning.”

In The Innovators: How Mature Minds Shape Creativity, economist David Galenson dismantles one of our most persistent cultural myths – the idea of the lone, young genius who transforms a field overnight. Instead, he presents a more nuanced and liberating truth: there are at least two distinct paths to groundbreaking work, and neither is inherently superior.

Conceptual innovators strike like lightning. They peak early, armed with bold, radical ideas that disrupt the status quo. Some great examples of conceptualists include Picasso with Cubism, Einstein with special relativity, and T.S. Eliot with The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. They were vision-first creators who were clear in their intent, precise in their execution, and often shaped the trajectory of their fields before their peers had even found their footing. Their genius is undeniable, but it can also be precarious. The bright burn can give way to burnout when success outpaces the infrastructure to sustain it.

Experimental innovators, on the other hand, are slow alchemists. They mature into their best work through years, even decades, of trial, error, and refinement. Cézanne painting the same subject repeatedly, Darwin patiently mapping the evolution of species, Virginia Woolf crafting novels that deepen with each page. Their brilliance emerges not in sudden flashes, but in a gradual unfolding, each iteration drawing from accumulated experience and the wisdom of integration.

Galenson’s framework is more than art history insight; it’s a powerful reframe for leaders today. In a world obsessed with disruption, speed, and youth, we rarely celebrate the innovators whose impact comes from patience and persistence. Yet the slow-burn approach aligns with something I often see in my work with multidimensional leaders: the deep integration of identity, experience, and purpose over time.

Many of my clients have wrestled with a quiet frustration: Why haven’t I “arrived” yet? They measure themselves against the meteoric stories and forget that the arc of their own brilliance may be exponential rather than explosive. For these leaders, reframing “late blooming” as strategic depth is a profound shift in perspective. Their slower arc isn’t a deficit; it’s a reservoir. With each cycle of practice, insight, and refinement, they’re building a personal innovation engine that won’t stall when the spotlight shifts.

In my own career, my most impactful work as a leadership facilitator didn’t emerge from my first retreats or programs, but from years of weaving together my business background, artistic practice, and coaching experience into something that felt wholly my own. The breakthroughs came not in a flash, but in the spaces between projects, where ideas had time to breathe and connect. Over time, I learned that my art and my leadership work weren’t separate pursuits; they were different expressions of the same vision. That integration didn’t just make my work richer; it made it more resonant for the leaders I serve.

The truth is that most leaders are not purely one type or the other. We may experience seasons of conceptual visioning – moments when clarity strikes and we leap forward – and seasons of experimental mastery, where the quiet accumulation of skill and insight shapes our work. The magic is in cultivating dual awareness: knowing when to lead with bold, decisive vision and when to lean into patient iteration.

And here’s the contrarian truth worth considering: our collective obsession with youth and disruption blinds us to the transformative potential of maturity, patience, and process. Hustle culture rewards speed, but speed is not the same as significance. The most enduring innovations are often those that take time to mature, to evolve, to flourish.

So, if you’re feeling behind, let me offer you this: Your brilliance is not fading; it’s unfolding. Your path, whether rapid or unhurried, isn’t a race against someone else’s clock. It’s an evolving synthesis of everything you’ve seen, learned, and lived. The work you are doing today, every conversation, every iteration, every insight, is laying the foundation for the moment your vision takes full shape. Trust the layering. Protect the process. Because unfolding brilliance isn’t just about waiting; it’s about tending, refining, and daring to stay in the game long enough to create something timeless. And when it’s ready, it won’t just make an impact, it will leave a legacy.