Success is more than a matter of inheritance

In the sublime world of music, we have seen too many child prodigies, mostly drawn from illustrious music families. They have been exposed to the various subtleties of music, like melody, rhythm, tempo, and timbre, right from childhood around home, and perhaps even when they were in their mother’s womb, as many believe. Is it in their genes too, biologically handed down from parents and grandparents as lineage goes back? But it is equally surprising to find many prodigies never make it to the top in their own lifetime. Perhaps the environment and their own mixed adult priorities make them miss their gene goals.

It is equally baffling to find many a music stalwart without the benefit of conspicuous gene lineage in that direction for many generations. Did they have parental/teachers’ encouragement to reach such exalted levels in music? So what matters? Is it heredity or the bringing up?

Extensive work seems to have been done in this field of biological development and debate on nature vs. nurture. The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee and Nature Vs Nurture: The Eternal Debate by Tim Blythe give a lot of insight in this direction. Racial superiority and extermination of millions on that basis during the Holocaust are living proof that a vast number of people believed and still believe some are better than the others because of heredity.

The truth lies somewhere in between. Physiological characteristics like height, skin colour, and bodily and dynamic features are hereditary. Some of the negative aspects, like proneness to certain diseases like Alzheimer’s, may be passed on by the genes. It is interesting to note that this aspect made Siddhartha Mukherjee go deep into the realms of gene study.

However, on the positive side, nurture and environment seem to have a salutary effect on the development of many behavioural, psychological and skill-level aspects. While genes may give the springboard to skills in music, maths, science and arts, childhood support and guidance in the right direction make a lot of difference. A study of ‘Hundred Years of Nobel Laureates’ brought out by Encyclopaedia Britannica brings out the point that very few of these men and women had the springboard benefit of hereditary and gene lineage, but most of them had climbed up by inspiration and hard work. Importantly, all of them had deep passion in what they pursued. There is hope for all.