Why Super Smart People Struggle
Do any of these questions sound familiar?
Why is it that a college dropout is more successful than me? I have 3 degrees and I should be making more money than are (or you say I know I can and should be making more money than they are.)
I have an high IQ. There is no way I should be struggling like this.
Why am I in a cubicle while she’s posting pics from Las Vegas. I know I scored higher than her on tests in college. I know I’m smarter.
He has the perfect life. How is he able to afford a Lamborghini when I’m struggling to pay the rent.
Here’s why smart people sometimes struggle and people you don’t expect “kill it.”
- Emotional Intelligence>IQ
- Make Top Grades Outside the Classroom. (I used to be an A student, check out why I stopped aiming for perfection).
- Your Destiny is In Your Hands
- I’m leaving this blank for a reason. Haha.
- Want To Stand Out?
I wish someone had told me before college that it was just as important to focus on making A’s outside of the classroom as it was inside of the classroom. Too many times I, and the people around me, sacrificed our health, relationships, and our mental wellbeing to make sure we kept up in class. As long as we “made grades” everything else would be “okay,” and inevitably, life took a back seat. I now know that A’s in the class and F’s in life was not the right approach. One should never abandon their wellbeing to achieve success or rack up accolades. The only way to make the A grades count is if you are healthy, and that transcends beyond physical health. It lends itself to every corner of your life; mental health and personal relationships being at the forefront.
I wish someone had said “you don’t carry a report card around with you after your graduate. You carry around your health, your sleep patterns, your relationships and your emotional intelligence, not just your documented intelligence.”
-Whitney Wolfe
- Emotional Intelligence>IQ
The one thing I wish I was more emphasized in school? How to form bonds and connections with people.
How you treat people can carry you further than any college degree.
The average millionaire does NOT have a genius IQ. Research has shown this to be true. Jay Zagorsky, author of a study on wealth and IQ and a research scientist at Ohio State University ‘s Center for Human Resource Research says ‘People don’t become rich just because they are smart,’ he said ‘Your IQ has really no relationship to your wealth’.
Nobody is saying that having smarts is a bad thing. I mentioned this in one of my articles, if you were considered a dummy growing up, but you make millions with a skill? You will be automatically “smart” because you obtained something that many want but don’t know how to get!
Warren Buffett, one of the richest billionaires in the world says that if you have an IQ over 130 you should sell the extra to someone else. Water it down! Building a skill is more important, because how high your IQ is has nothing to do with how wealthy you become.
You have to let go of the ‘Talent Myth’. The belief that some people are just born with natural skills that make them successful.
“What if our deepest assumptions about success in education and sport — indeed, in life itself — are misconceived?-The Independent
A ground-breaking study on British musicians found that the top performers had learned no faster than the lower performers. The various groups improved at almost identical rates. The difference was simply that top performers had practiced for more hours. Further research has shown that when top performers seem to possess an early gift, it is often because they have been given extra tuition at home by their parents.
And the same insight is revealed by looking at child prodigies who seem to have been blessed with amazing skills. But research proves otherwise.
Tiger Woods, for example, was considered ‘The most talented player of all time.’
But remember Woods was given a golf club five days before his first birthday; that by the age of two he had played his first round; that by five he had accumulated more hours of practice than most of us achieve in a lifetime.
2. Make Top Grades Outside The Classroom
You really don’t carry your report card around you after you leave school. I realized that getting A’s doesn’t mean that I’ll be successful in life. Sure, it’s nice to say I got straight A’s this semester, or I got academic honors or “dean’s list.”
I was reading at college level at the 6th grade. Why I don’t mention this anywhere on my resume? Because it doesn’t matter! It’s nice to say you accomplished certain feats, but there’s more pressing matters to worry about.
3. Success comes when you realize life isn’t perfect, and it doesn’t involve memorizing the right answers from a textbook.
I’ve found that a lot of A’s students in my life (peers,) don’t do as well at their jobs or businesses because their definition of success is “get good grades and make no mistakes.” The issue with this is life isn’t perfect. Instead of lying about making mistakes and pretending you don’t make any, learn from them. Embrace mistakes.
Mistakes are great to learn from if you have the courage to admit that you make them.
Newsflash: I F*ck up all the time! And it’s ok!
I wish I had the chance to tell my friends that killed themselves that college or perfect A’s is not worth ending your life over. I wish that I could tell my family members that are way smarter than me intelligently and analytically that over-analyzing everything and being the smartest person in the room is shooting yourself in the foot. For example, are you going to use a parallelogram equation when talking to your group of friends about sex? How about calculating the the distance between your home and work using the Pythagorean theorem?
EXACTLY. In many scenarios it pays to water it down! It sometimes pays to not reveal everything you know or get a ego trip to prove that you are the smartest in the room. I do it all the time! Even when people propose new businesses with me, I never reveal how much I’ve done right away.
4. I want you to look at these below. Does it strike a nerve with you?
5. Want to stand out? Stop following the masses. Keep an eye on what they are doing and do the opposite. Learn how to adapt to crazy, outlandish, difficult situations thrown at you for making the decision to not follow the normal path of life.
Hello! I’m Alesha! I’m a musician, actress, entrepreneur and writer and recent hospital patient (I still can’t believe that is real). Follow on Twitter. If you like what I’m writing, give me a heart and share! :) I like hearts. Let me know what you want me to write! Click here!
