There are some human talents that just cannot be defined in terms of IQ. Good examples of such qualities are self-discipline, endurance or ambition. These capabilities, however, are often more important to a person's success in life than their intelligence and other genetic make-up.
Most of us will know of some people who we know in school who always had the best grades but ended up an utter failure in professional life, the popular athlete who somehow never stopped growing up. Or the person who was uninteresting and slow-witted in class and always had difficulties passing every subject and is now a successful manager or entrepreneur living in a big house.
We have all come across people who were genuinely successful in their social life, with a happy marriage, bright and confident children and a wide circle of friends - even though they were not the most intelligent students in school. Why is this the case?
Michael P Steinberg, an expert in human intelligence who has been studying the relation of intelligence and success in life, tells the story of 2 good friends lost in the woods. One is highly intelligent and getting good grades in school. The other boy is not so intelligent and his teachers find nothing impressive about him. He does however have very good common sense and is street smart. As they both wander in the forest, they find themselves face with a dangerous predicament, a hungry and angry grizzly bear not too far off. The first boy whips out his calculator, quickly judges the distance and says, "Based on the known speed of the grizzly and how fast we can run, we'll be "bear food" in 23 seconds". The second boy bends down and tightens his shoes laces, looks up, grins and says, "What do you mean WE? All I have to do is run faster than you !"
The first boy may have used his book knowledge and quickly got to the bottom of their problem, but his analysis did not bring him far. The second boy however, had a good grasp of the situation, was able to think out of the box and find a creative solution for his survival. Successful entrepreneurs or managers often find themselves in new and unknown territory that need creative problem solving skills. Such talents are inborn but can be trained. Using experiences and knowledge that we have in our minds and information that has been perceived by our senses, we can often find adaptable solutions to our problems. Such talents make the human race a hardy and adaptable specie that has ensured our survival in untold calamities throughout our existence on earth.
Knowledge can indeed by useful but it is the application of knowledge that makes it powerful. Often knowledge is gleaned from our experience in life, stored away in the recesses of our memory, to be retrieved for our use. Our experience than compares the knowledge against our past success or failures and it is our creativity that shapes our destiny. Our early ancestors may have been cut by a sharp stone. Such an experience, together with his creative intelligence help him conjure up a weapon, a spear or arrow made up of a sharp stone splinter secured at the end of a stick. Through trials and errors in launching his new weapon, our ancient hunter eventually finds his aim and becomes a formidable predator.
So if you were never at the top of your class, fret not. Exercise some imagination and ingenuity. Use your life experiences and memory to think of a creative solution to a problem. You may yet give birth to a million-dollar idea
About the Author
Martin Mak is a memory expert who helps people to enhance their memory and learning experience. Find out how you can benefit from his popular free ecourse at =>http://www.mightymemory.com/memoryarticle.html
