I'm Not Very Intelligent

“I’m not that smart. I can’t ever seem to compete with that sheer brilliance of a mind. Will I ever be successful?” Yes, we all have grappled with these self-deprecating questions at some point in our lives, and still do at times when we doubt ourselves. Here’s an attempt to give you strength in fighting this.

The picture above is of Chris Langan, tested to be the smartest man in history scoring an IQ point of around 200. But I bet you haven’t heard of him. Most of us haven’t. I’m defining individual success here to be mostly a function of influence an individual commands, and value that an individual creates in his/her society. By this definition, Chris Langan is far from successful. Here’s why. Success is not a function of JUST intellectual merit. It’s hugely a social construct where an individual’s myriad social attributes are infused, barring raw mental intelligence. The way the society has defined success, therefore, needs us to have more than possessing a superior IQ. It would serve you good if you study the circumstances that renowned successful people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, etc. grew up in. Their IQ was not the sole factor in them being champions in their trade. It was social priming, hard work, and of course, a little bit of luck.

They obviously were smart but what’s most crucial is they had opportunities presented to them by society, and they didn’t have to use much intelligence to grab those opportunities. Bill Gates had a computer terminal in the school he went to. His school faculty pooled money together for the school to get a terminal. The former (situation) was luck, the latter social priming. He saw the opportunity and invested thousands of hours learning to program until he was good enough to start his own software company. That’s hard work followed by good luck. You’d think Bill was outrageously smart and didn’t have to put in much effort to become successful. You’re wrong. Warren Buffet went to his dad’s stock brokerage (luck that his dad had a stock brokerage) shop when he was 11, got hooked and invested significant amount of time and energy learning about investing until he got hold of the Holy Grail of success much later in his life. Social priming and hard work. You’d think he was so intelligent that surmising the stock future came naturally to him. No.

But why hasn’t Chris Langan with the highest IQ in the history of mankind been able to get a place in the Hall of Fame (read Success) like his other high IQ counterparts? Well, success never has a positive linear correlation with IQ. Dig deeper and you’ll find his childhood was devoid of similar life-changing opportunities like anyone introducing him to any avenue of learning or providing financial/moral support like his counterparts (Gates and Buffet) had received. Chris was born into the one of the poorest families, had a rough childhood and got abused by his step-father. It was a luxury for him to pursue his personal life goals. He had his little siblings to fend for and fought everyday just to make ends meet. Hardship historically has always burned potential. You’d think his towering IQ could’ve trounced all the difficulties and challenges life threw at him and enable him to figure out a way out of any inconvenience. But no. Intellectual merit fell short here. You need social priming. If only Langan had a benefactor, then maybe, we could’ve seen him working on the level of Hawkins and his work getting recognized worldwide in academia. But instead, he worked as a bouncer in Long Island for 20 years, not a career we’d expect from a man of his intellect. No scholar could hardly buy his scholarly attempts this later in his life because he had no scholarly work as a precedent, and being a bouncer didn’t help either. The culmination of success is like the domino effect. You need that first topple to trigger other topples. Langan didn’t have any from his childhood. Gates had a terminal to work on. Buffet’s dad had a stock brokerage shop. First opportunities.

falling dominoes

IQ is just an indicator of how sharp your mind is when it comes to reasoning, rate of knowledge absorption and cognitive function in general. It can make you learn things faster and it’s just one ingredient in the recipe of success. In fact, it’d do you good to rather consider tenacity and perseverance to be more important to succeed. Identify an interest or an opportunity presented to you, and DEVOTE your life to it. Don’t beat yourself up about not being born super intelligent or with privileges. Opportunities are like black swans. They do come but not in droves. So, when an opportunity does present itself, act on it. Build on it. Execute. Learn. Grow. Success will follow.