ALBERT Einstein was brilliant at 26, Mozart published his first piece of music at five and just soared through his teens and twenties, 17th century philosopher Rene Descartes famously declared “I think therefore I am” at 23, Alexander the Great was well on his way to fame in his mid 20s, and Harry Styles is a musical genius at 23. Er, sorry, cancel that. How about Lennon and McCartney?
A lot of the world's brightest people make their mark early and go on to even greater things. Research, in fact, says the golden age of creativity peaks at 25. It's all downhill after that, which means I must be treading water at the bottom of a particularly mucky mill pond.
Things could have been so different if I'd had the breaks when I was 20, even though I was more interested in football, rock and roll and girls rather than creating a masterpiece.
Mind you, I did send a play I wrote to Granada TV. It was called Left Luggage and was about a talking head abandoned in a hat box at a rural railway station. They returned it as unsuitable and were probably right as I was going through my Samuel Beckett period at the time, but without his talent.
This followed my rejection by Manchester United in my teens who also said I was unsuitable. I'll bet they wouldn't have said that to Alexander the Great.
So I packed in my job and went to Africa. Unfortunately, Africa eventually thought I was unsuitable and I was deported from Uganda. All this before I had hit my creative peak at 25. How many set-backs can one aspiring genius take?
Life might have been different if I had been suitable for United, Granada TV or Africa. But I have no regrets. If I had been suitable, I wouldn't have met my wife and have the family I have today plus all the fun along the way.
As Rene Descartes might have said, I think I made the right choices, therefore I am happy.
A lot of the world's brightest people make their mark early and go on to even greater things. Research, in fact, says the golden age of creativity peaks at 25. It's all downhill after that, which means I must be treading water at the bottom of a particularly mucky mill pond.
Things could have been so different if I'd had the breaks when I was 20, even though I was more interested in football, rock and roll and girls rather than creating a masterpiece.
Mind you, I did send a play I wrote to Granada TV. It was called Left Luggage and was about a talking head abandoned in a hat box at a rural railway station. They returned it as unsuitable and were probably right as I was going through my Samuel Beckett period at the time, but without his talent.
This followed my rejection by Manchester United in my teens who also said I was unsuitable. I'll bet they wouldn't have said that to Alexander the Great.
So I packed in my job and went to Africa. Unfortunately, Africa eventually thought I was unsuitable and I was deported from Uganda. All this before I had hit my creative peak at 25. How many set-backs can one aspiring genius take?
Life might have been different if I had been suitable for United, Granada TV or Africa. But I have no regrets. If I had been suitable, I wouldn't have met my wife and have the family I have today plus all the fun along the way.
As Rene Descartes might have said, I think I made the right choices, therefore I am happy.
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