The Alchemy of Your Agony

Come summertime, weddings will be happening in rapid-fire succession — and you can bet hundreds of starry-eyed newlyweds will sway through their first dance to one of Lewis Capaldi’s heartbreaking love ballads. What they won’t be thinking about, of course, are the brutal personal demons Lewis had to battle to create those haunting songs.

Just like no one sipping wine in a gallery pauses to consider what kind of anguish Picasso had to metabolize to paint something that melts your brain. No one blasting Prince or Amy Winehouse on Spotify is thinking about the emotional shrapnel they carried into the studio. The “tortured genius” archetype is a cliché — because it reflects something profoundly true about human nature:

We need the darkness to truly appreciate the light.

Friction — whether it comes as heartbreak, rejection, humiliation, or failure — is the cosmic sandpaper that creates growth.  Growth creates transformation. Transformation unlocks genius.

Sometimes we face torture, agony, or failure and it defeats us. And sometimes we channel the anguish to produce something so beautiful it defies the possibility that it was produced by a mere mortal.

But no one who survives a dark night of the soul is a mere mortal…

I remember a lesson I first encountered decades ago in a Tom Peters book. It went something like this:

“If you haven’t experienced a major failure yet, you’d better hurry up and have one.”

Not because you should go looking to blow up your business or sabotage your relationships. Only a fool seeks out suffering.
But when the Universe does send you into the crucible — and it will — your job is simple:

Harvest the hidden blessing baked within it.

You must be willing to lose at love.
You must be willing to botch your craft.
You must be willing to endure the torture tests the Universe designs specifically for your growth.

Because here’s the uncomfortable secret…

The moment you declare your intention to do something epic, the Universe will test you to see whether you’re a poser or a player.  And only then will you find out if you’re serious about your dream.

– RG

Previous post: Money.