Awakening Your Inner Genius

By: Sean Patrick

Narrated by: Jeff Justus

Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's Summary

If you’d like to know what some of history’s greatest thinkers and achievers can teach you about awakening your inner genius, and how to find, follow, and fulfill your journey to greatness, then you want to read this book today.

You can score in the highest ranges of IQ...and fail to succeed in life. You can work incredibly hard...and never realize your dreams. You can stumble across beautiful opportunities...only to watch them wither and die.

There’s something else—something considered unfathomable by many—that lies behind greatness. And in Awakening Your Inner Genius, you’re going to be taken on an adventure to discover what that is, and how you can use it to transform your life.

You see, genius is a path, not a gift. Studies of history’s greatest geniuses have shown that there is a “genius code,” if you will. A combination of very specific traits that we can develop in ourselves, and thus, operate at a genius level.

In this book, you’re going to learn things like…

Why IQ, opportunities, and working toward that magical goal of 10,000 hours don’t comprise the whole story of great achievers, and what else is needed to walk in the footsteps of our greatest geniuses.

How to view and deal with the world as Leonardo da Vinci did, and embrace the one trait that most accounted for his incredible genius and talents.

Lessons from Nikola Tesla on why imagination is so vital to awakening your inner genius, and insights into the real “secret” to creativity, as explained by people like Jobs, Picasso, Dali, and Twain.

How Thomas Edison was able to go from a mischievous academically challenged kid to the world’s most successful inventor, and how you too can formulate and realize goals like he did.

The secret to Alexander the Great’s superhuman drive and work ethic, and how you can inspire yourself to pursue your own goals and dreams with the same vigor and tenacity.

What geniuses like Elizabeth I can teach you about the importance of individualism in your journey to greatness, and how to strengthen your will to break away from conventions, ignore the naysayers, and stay true to your vision and principles.

How Hippocrates’ epic quest to reform medicine in ancient Greece was fueled by his unparalleled judgment, and how you too can sharpen your ability to make the right decisions at the right times and thus move closer to your dreams, one good call at a time.

And much, much more…

Imagine for a moment how this could change your life.

If you dream of escaping the nine-to-five and striking out on your own, imagine if you knew with certainty that you would succeed.

If you don’t like where some aspect of humanity is going, imagine if you could do something amazing about it.

If you have a stubborn desire to reach out into our culture and write “I was here,” imagine if nothing could stop you.

So, is the journey to genius right for you? Well, ask yourself the following questions.

Who are you, really, and what are you really capable of?

What is your calling, and what might happen in the world if you found out?

If these questions ignite a spark of curiosity in you, then empower yourself to explore their meaning and magnitude.

Read this book today and discover what it really takes to find and follow your bliss, and how to use the lessons passed down to us by some of history’s greatest geniuses to systematically rise to top of your fields, activities, and endeavors.

©2014 Sean Patrick (P)2014 Sean Patrick

A history of genius

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would certainly recommend this book to a friend. The historic perspective of genius is a great starting point for finding ways to enhance and improve your life. The case-study format of the stories in this book presented a profound perspective, and one that would benefit any reader.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I love Leonardo, and obsesses over anything I can learn about him. But in this book, the historic figure I most resonated with is Alexander. His exploits were amazing, and the story of his death was tragic. Losing purpose was his downfall. That's a lesson to remember.

What does Jeff Justus bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

There was a rhythmic timbre to his reading that kept me engaged.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The story of Alexander's death, after losing his purpose, was powerful.

Any additional comments?

I found this book inspiring. I read obsessively about geniuses, in an effort to gleam anything I can from how they think and work, so I can apply those ideas to my own life. I have my own personal Top 5 list of geniuses, and this book covered all of them, plus a few I'll now obsess over.

Though I thought it was a little light on "action steps," I actually loved the approach of presenting historic figures in a sort of "case study" format. I learned a great deal about the lives of these geniuses, and I believe I can apply what I've learned to my daily life.

Very enjoyable read. Very inspirational. And very much a must-have for your personal improvement library.

Anecdotal Evidence for the Subjective Genius

What would have made Awakening Your Inner Genius better?

I rather enjoyed the first half of this book until I started to realize that the interesting, if somewhat superficial stories about "geniuses" were actually the entire content of the book. A plethora of research on achievement is available today, so it's very surprising that Patrick chose to focus almost exclusively on biographical stories of famous people. Certainly a key tool in spreading messages is to use anecdotal evidence, but for a book entitled " Awaking Your Inner Genius", I think a larger focus on solid research on achievement and learning would have been more appropriate. This book would have been much improved had it been either more focused on research, interspersing stories of people who did (arguably) great things with an approachable synthesis of current research, or by abandoning the silly title (in context) and focusing on some lesser known high achievers as well as the highly famous. Despite the author's assertion that there are secrets to becoming a "genius" in these stories, there's nothing particularly insightful or uniquely helpful about these stories. Certainly there is good advice in the themes of "Work really really hard", "never let other people's opinions derail your ambitions", "focus on mastering one thing at a time", etc., but this is mostly common sense. There is more depth to these axioms available that could be helpful, but Patrick makes no real effort to flush them out.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I found Tesla's life story highly fascinating, and it made me consider searching out a book that tells more about him. The stories towards the end of the book start to drag, and feel less compelling, but that could be as much because I'd realized at that point that there was no real prescriptive advice or insight coming.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

An odd choice of narrator given the title. A lot of mispronunciation of common words and garbled syllables that become distracting at time.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Awakening Your Inner Genius?

The frequent, and sometimes highly inappropriate references to L. Ron Hubbard. Quoting him when talking about always being honest? SERIOUSLY???? Mentioning Ayn Rand right after discussing the virtues of empathy????

Any additional comments?

You won't become a genius reading or listening to this book, but you might find the stories of interesting people mildly motivating. If you want to actually learn how to achieve, look for more practical books such as Barbara Oakley's excellent "A Mind for Numbers".

Non-scientific history lesson

The book is mildy inspiring telling the biography of a handful interesting characters. I was expecting a scientific approach to the subject, but was disappointed. The book proclaims to motivate us getting out of the 9-5 routine, but then proceed to tell the story of 14th century monarchs(for hours), not exactly matching the similar parameters of the book's audience. I only listened to about two thirds of the book, due to the dragged out biographies. I did get a few points out of it, but the take-aways could have been compressed into a 60-min book.

Boring historical tales

90% of the book is wasted on irrelevant details in the lives of some great geniuses. Instead of focusing on the achievements of these geniuses the author spends a lot of time reading the dairy of Alexander the great on his quest. Save your time and money and don't download this book even for free!

Thought-provoking look into famous people

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I haven't studied history as much as I'd like and Sean adds great context by paralleling famous individuals accomplishments with life lessons that are truly timeless and unfortunately under-rated in modern society.

Great historical facts

If you could sum up Awakening Your Inner Genius in three words, what would they be?

Educational, informative, helpful

What was one of the most memorable moments of Awakening Your Inner Genius?

Learning about how cut throat, and sometimes even evil the trials were that led many great people to their greatness.

Have you listened to any of Jeff Justus’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It was a good learning experience.

summary of others greatness - no direction

Sean has chosen to tell the story of geniuses. if you enjoy history you might find this entertaining. But it will leave you unchanged. I'm sorry to have wasted both my time and money.

A good book with inspiring elements.

Would you listen to Awakening Your Inner Genius again? Why?

I'm pretty convinced that I'm going to listen this this audio book aging sometime in the future.
I tend to forget my 'drive' for what I want to do with my life, so therefore I hope that this book can 're-awaken' that drive whenever it has died out.

What did you like best about this story?

I think the book inspires the listener to do great things with their life.
It tells you what the greatest geniuses in history did with their lives, and how they reached their 'genious' status.

What about Jeff Justus’s performance did you like?

The voice actor for this book was amazing!
Very calm and fluent

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

How to become a little smarter.

Entertaining and inspiring!

A conglomeration of good information on historical figures, highlighting the traits that the author referred to cause genius. Instructive, educational, entertaining and inspiring!

passion, cofidence, and sucess distilled

A concise and clearly researched book. Helps give us hope for the human race. Thanks.

Must read

Loved this book from beginning to end. Sean shares some great stories that depict the genius code and gives understanding expansions of the subject... I let my intuition choose which book to read next from my library, and this was totally what I needed to hear/read right now... Thank you Sean for putting this great book out to the world... 😊 👍 BTW... How can I get the workbook...,? The link didn't work... Thanks

History lessons :(

What the hell am I reading? Half way through the book and I've given up. This is nothing more than a history lesson, narrated with boring, dreary voice. There is perhaps 10% of the content that puts the story into context, but there's no need for the rubbish that precedes it. Totally misleading description. If you want a history book you would probably do better than this. If you want to awaken your inner genius, you won't find the answers here