Did Leonardo da Vinci ever have it so bad? Most creators, inventors, and innovators in their lifetime didn't harness the recognition for their works in their own lifetimes. One did. Pablo Picasso in his own time received the honors for his greatness and made money off his incredible works. Many other creators died alone, died broke, and died in some sort of exile from society. Take Antonio Gaudi one of Spain’s, if not greatest, Architects. He was hit but a car in a disheveled state, took for a bum by the police and taken to a poor persons hospital. He died at that hospital and then was mourned by 10,000 people who followed him as he was taken to be buried in the church he spent most of his life designing, and the one he had been living in for the last twenty years of his life. What about Nikola Tesla, an inventor, who in many aspects rivals and surpasses Thomas Alva Edison? Nikola created AC current and Thomas created DC current. They both bid on contracts, but AC current could travel farther with less mid-way stations. Hence today in all our homes and business we use AC current, and in our cars, toys, etc with batteries we use DC. It is also not commonly known that Edison did not invent the light bulb; he improved upon it and made it work. Yes, Edison has over 1,000 patents, and was very famous in his time. Nikola who came to the US with 4 cents in his pocket and if he had accepted the royalties his inventions would have paid he would have been the world's first Billionaire, instead he died alone and broke.

So, what's to learn from so many talented individuals? Well, one must believe in what they are doing and come to realize that their efforts may be recorded and praised long after their gone. Ignore the critics who haunt you and proceed along your intuition and common sense like the masters behind you like Michelangelo, Isaac Newton, Buckminster Fuller, Nikola Tesla, Galileo Galilei, and Louis Kahn.