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Brilliant in Solitude:

I am brilliant, if I say so myself. But so is everyone else in their own way. There are those intellectuals, actors, celebrities, sportsmen, businessmen, et al, who are successful by dint of serendipity, inheritance, intelligence or hard work, but the majority of us are never recognised, remembered through the ages, or acknowledged for our inputs during life.

But do you want to be publicly unveiled as the next big thing or do you, like me, prefer to hide your light under a bushel and plod on developing your own ideas, keeping them to yourself. Granted friends and family might know of your creativeness in thought, word and deed, and you might enjoy some local notoriety, but you like hugging the shadows in the background.

Does the prospect of 15 minutes of fame appeal to you or scare you? Would you rather be admired from afar or enjoy fame in anonymity? Do you want your life changed because of your own hard work ethic? I've been thinking about this for a very long time. For over 20 years, I've been writing stories (along with artwork), first for proposed comic books (which got rejected by publishers) which I later turned into a proposed series of sci-fi novels (again with sample chapters being rejected). Part of me doesn't mind, because the stories then stay mine, to work on and perfect, re-write and re-create. But I have also created, written, and submitted other book ideas, TV programmes (which received some positive feedback, but ultimately rejected), I write songs (which I can sing) and poems, designed' aircraft, started photographic projects, and built two websites to facilitate all my works and projects.

Yet my work is not publicly for show, mostly to do with protecting my intellectual property, but also because I like keeping myself and work to myself. It's nice when friends and family encourage your work (which you'd expect them too), but maybe ultimately I am afraid of rejection. After all, these projects are my inner self-expression on display, so does that mean if my ideas are rejected, that I am as a person, too? If my ideas are for me alone, do they remain successful, untainted creations in my eyes? As with many people, I am bursting with creativity and looking for outlets for my ideas. Maybe I have not found the right channels through which to distribute my ideas. I could self-publish or go freelance or hawk my wares on online share sites. Or maybe it is not yet my time, my ideas not yet at that developed stage to fully appreciate and profit from. I am the rough diamond waiting to be discovered.

I am self-critical, a perfectionist (subjectively), and can take constructive criticism and rejection, but if all my work is totally rejected, where does that leave me? Does it really matter what others think? Is it best to be brilliant in solitude or rejected in public? Whatever destiny holds for me I will know that I have tried my best, used my natural and honed abilities to think freely and creatively to make myself as brilliant as I am, as will you.

Learn more about this author, Ray Burke.
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