Solomon was soon to succeed his father David to the throne of Israel. Solomon was a gifted, brilliant young man and might have been tempted to rely on his wit rather than work. That would have meant failure, so it was wise counsel his father gave him when he said, "Arise and be doing".
You are fortunate in any degree of genius you may possess, but if you depend on your genius rather than on industry, you are sure to fail.
"Many a brilliantly endowed man has been surpassed by the man of plodding industry", writes columnist John R. Gunn. He continues, "Genius is not to be discounted. Without a certain degree of genius, no amount of labor could have produced a Shakespeare, a Newton, a Beethoven or a Michaelangelo. But the greatest of men have been the least believers in the power of genius. They have been men of toil and perserverance."
Back of all success and achievement lies an astonishing amount of incessant toil. It may sometimes seem that men are succeeding at accomplishing things with little effort, but this only seems to be the case. Sir Walter Raleigh could do things with ease and facility of touch, yet it was of Raleigh that Queen Elizabeth said, "He could toil terribly."
Not genius, but work accounts for most of our successful men. Moreover, the greater part of the contributions to the world's good stands credited to plain hard work rather than to exceptional genius.