"Genius is 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration," said Thomas Edison, and he should've known: It took him hundreds of tweaks to get his incandescent light bulb to work well, and he was already building on the work of 22 earlier inventors of incandescent lights.

It should be noted that Edison was (unconsciously) describing himself, not every genius. Tesla, a contemporary who worked with him, remarked about Edison's inability to see answers to problems the way Tesla often could (if I remember correctly, Tesla claimed that he could have worked out the necessary material for a filament from first principles). Edison, as the manager of an innovation factory, saw more returns from wringing perspiration out of his employees than focusing on inspiration.

Perhaps a better way to put it is that inspiration doesn't come from nowhere; it comes from perspiration. So sit down and get to work.