Malcolm Gladwell penned an insightful article on creativity and genius back in 2008. He takes two genius' from the world of painting - Picasso and Cezanne - and asks what it was about Cezanne that didn't allow him to bloom until much later than Picasso.
Gladwell notes a few salient points:
1) Creative genius is either conceptual and experimental; i.e. the Picasso's (conceptual) of the world don't search for things in their work, they know from the beginning what they want and their work is only the means to that already defined end. In contrast, there are the Cezanne's (experimental) who try and fail repeatedly because their end goal isn't known ... yet.
2) Late bloomers need a support system or they simply cannot sustain the level of effort needed to hone their craft.
3) Late bloomers, in one sense, deserve more praise than conceptual genius' because their accomplishment requires far more forbearance and blind faith to materialize.
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