[Philosophy] Brilliant, insane, or both?

Excuse the pop culture origins of this quote…

“The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.” – James Bond (007)

If you loosely interpret the meaning of the word insanity, I think James Bond is actually right. To have any sort of success which could be termed as genius or brilliance, you really have to do some sort of perspective that normal (read, falling within n standard deviations of the “average” person) people do not see. Thus, the average person, not seeing things from that perspective will see this person as kinda off track in his or her insight. However, at least initially, it is impossible to determine whether this person has merely spun off or is really onto something. Only success can determine if this person’s perspective is real insight (thus, genius) or simply delusional, naivity, stupidity, or full-blooded insanity.

This applies not to fictional and elaborate plans to escape danger (James Bond) but to real life as well. Albert Einstein had insights which formed the theory of relativity. If he was unsuccessful and the theory of relativity was incorrect, then he would just have been some crank with some far out theories. Bill Gates had an insight that everyone will have a computer someday. If he was unsuccessful, he’d just be an overly ambitious nerd who was naive about the uses of computers. Steve Jobs had the insight that computers should be easy to use for everyone, not just technical people. If he was unsuccessful, this insight would just be some idealistic hippy idea.