The Good News: You Don’t Need to Be a Genius to Do Exceptionally Well in Business!
How do we measure being “smart”? How do we decide if we are smart or not, or at least smart enough to advance our careers? As we grow older, we learn that “smart” is not so easy to define. There are many different “smarts,” and one can be smart in some ways, but not in others. Nevertheless, most will look to one’s intelligence quotient (IQ) to determine just how smart one is.
We accept as truth that the higher a person’s IQ, the more likely the person would excel in school and business, and the corollary, that the lower the IQ, the less likely the person would do well in both school and business. We accept that as truth at an early age when our point of reference is distorted. At an early age, we can only perceive “smarts” from the perspective of being successful in school, where indeed the higher the IQ, the more likely the success. It is most apparent at the extreme ranges. In many cases it appears to us that those who have a very high IQ are so much more successful in school than those with a lower IQ. Not just more successful, but it appears that achieving high grades comes so much easier to them—there is just no way we could compete with such intelligent people. In my opinion, while that may be the case for excelling in school, it is not the case in the workplace. Unfortunately, many of us may not realize it. Worse yet, believing in an absolute equation between success and IQ, particularly in our formative years, may have long-lasting and damaging implications that place people at a significant disadvantage over time and particularly in the corporate business world. It is time to correct that belief!
I am not suggesting that people with a high IQ may not have an inherent advantage at potentially excelling both in school and work. What I am suggesting, though, from interacting with and observing many high-IQ people, is that it is not necessarily so. We have all heard the differentiation between “book smart” and “street smart.” You may have even heard it said, “They are very smart but wouldn’t be able to find their way out of a paper bag.” I do believe that a higher IQ does give one an inherent advantage in the work environment for sure, as we use our brains constantly at work. So, it stands to reason that the higher the IQ, the more of an advantage one may have. However, this advantage of IQ would likely be more evident at the lower levels of a career path, at the first, second, or maybe even third management levels. This advantage diminishes at higher management levels.
To summarize, in my opinion, a higher IQ may be one of the more important determinants in one’s ability to excel in an academic environment, but not necessarily when it comes to excelling in business. It takes a different kind of “smarts” to excel in business. Where is the difference? What kind of “smarts” are needed to succeed in business? Why is it not necessarily the same as for school? I have my own perception regarding these questions.
To excel in school and academia, one is required to quickly and constantly absorb new, complicated, and interrelated facts, theorems, and theories—think physics, math, chemistry, and so on. Grasping new concepts and facts in subsequent lessons relies heavily on understanding the prior lessons. It is a never-ending cycle, where new, more complicated topics are introduced at a fast pace. At the same time, the amount of information one needs to comprehend and integrate grows in complexity over the years and is practically infinite in quantity. In addition, one needs to memorize it all and recall it for subsequent use. In this kind of an environment, one’s IQ may indeed be a predictor for success: The higher the IQ, the more successful one may become.
The business world is completely different. First and foremost, there is no single predominant skill or set of skills that yields success. This is particularly so as one advances into higher management levels. To succeed in business, one must be skilled in many different dimensions, where each dimension represents many different unique skills. Think interpersonal skills, communication skills, articulation skills, motivational skills, execution skills, psychological skills, judgment skills, leadership skills, character skills (like commitment, perseverance, dedication), selling skills (oneself and concepts), skills that represent experience and knowledge, intuition, creativity, and on and on. Also, such skills all must come together over a longer period, throughout a career path that is measured in years, not semesters. Thus, simply stated, in school and academia a single skill—higher IQ—may offer an advantage in mastering a practically infinite amount of information that needs to be integrated. In contrast, business requires a practically “infinite” amount of skills, not just one, that need to be well integrated for a single success—career advancement. See the difference? Almost the reverse!
Additionally, what one learns in school is always new, complex, and continuous. Business, on the other hand, represents the reverse; what one learns is somewhat relatively limited in quantity and not very complicated, relative to years of academic studies. And once learned, it is applied over and over, making someone an “expert” strictly due to experience and the passage of time. Thus, a high IQ is not as predictive of success. To state it in a simpler way: One doesn’t need to be a genius to do well in business. Most of what one needs to learn, including how to analyze problems and produce solutions, can be acquired, understood, and utilized by practically everybody.
Also, problems and solutions in school, particularly in science topics, generally have a single black-and-white solution. A solution is either right or wrong, and can be proven so. In contrast, the business world deals with situational problems and challenges that almost never have a proven, single solution. Rather, there are thousands of shades of gray, with many solutions differentiated more by “better” or “worse” and the risk/reward trade-off involved. It can rarely be proven in advance, and the proof almost always comes in retrospect!
Notwithstanding the above, there are some “smarts” related to one’s brainpower that could play a very important role in business success, namely, one’s ability to analyze, dissect, apply judgment, and draw pragmatic conclusions. In my opinion, one’s ability to do these well can singularly tilt one’s probability for success. So what does it take to do it well? This topic and the answer are so important that I devote a full section to them later in the book.
Allow me to complete this chapter by pointing out another personal opinion regarding an observation I made earlier about the long-lasting damage that may be inflicted on some of us in our formative years when we learn to believe that high IQ is key to one’s success, or at least that it would be very difficult to compete successfully with people with high IQ.
I believe that in our formative years, through our school experience, the only thing we can observe and are exposed to is what it takes to do well in school. When we are in school, the main measures of success are academic (e.g., grades and test scores). The people who do well are thought to be smart and those who don’t are believed not to be as smart. Schoolchildren absorb these opinions of themselves and their fellow students almost osmotically. So each student forms a view as to their smartness during their school years. Additionally, as a result of poorer academic performance, some may be guided away from professional business aspirations. So if you do well in school, you benefit because you believe that you can outperform others and solve all challenges that come your way. As you progress through school, you begin to develop a high level of self-confidence and taste the fruits of success. The taste of success is great, and it pushes you to want to continue it. Therefore, over time, you apply yourself harder and harder with greater commitment and sacrifice to continue your momentum of success. Self-confidence and hard work are traits that are important for success in business as well. So, someone who has done well in school develops a built-in early advantage. Just as importantly, they learn that they can overcome problems others find difficult to solve.
Unfortunately, the opposite may well occur to the people who experience performance difficulties in school. They may draw the opposite conclusions: they are not as smart and don’t do as well. So, they may grow up believing that they have very little chance to do well. Their self-confidence may therefore be lacking—a major disadvantage. Also, as a result, many of them may not even try to pursue the kind of career that could yield greater business success, and those who do may lack confidence and have more modest aspirations.