Were you given a bum steer towards success? Were you the guy that was told by your parents that intelligence wins the game of life?
I don’t know about you but I had expressions like:
you only never need work once in your life. You decide whether it’s for 15 years at school or for 50 years in a job
rammed down my throat as I was growing up. I guess this was my parent’s way of stirring the pain of an undesirable future to motivate me to take action in my schooling. I certainly do not resent my parents for this.
My mum would always say that it’s intelligence that gets you success. Whilst I agree that intelligence is a better attribute than having brute physical strength, which is of course what teenage boys want most – to be the hardest and most respected “tough guy” on the block.
One of the factors that got me started in Internet Marketing is the lure of a flexible lifestyle where I could enjoy the real currency of life… time and freedom with which to enjoy it! I realised that serious wealth creators and entrepreneurial thinkers are not always gifted intellects. Financial wealth doesn’t care about how smart you are – it will find the most or least intellectual people if they do the right things with the right attitude.
There are many examples in the business world of “C” grade students employing “A” grade students.
Artificial Intelligence: The Intelligence Illusion
They go to university or get a college degree online, where for the most part, they’re conditioned to serve in someone else’s company as an employee.
Look around and ask yourself:
How many really intelligent people are turning in every day at 9 am to report to a boss which certainly doesn’t have their best interests at heart?
How many people do you know on the Internet Marketing circuit that has broken through earning thousands and thousands of dollars and they’re barely out of their teen years and certainly don’t have an IQ and overall wisdom of the world like you? I think the answers to those two questions reveal something very interesting. After all, as an entrepreneur, you view things by the results you get, right? I think it’s clear to see that my mum was wrong – sorry mum!
Intelligence does not win the race. Intelligence often leads you down a path of being an intellectual where you intellectualise or analyse everything around you even dismissing things that are entirely possible to do as impossible to do. They will come up with reasonable sounding objections such as that cannot be done because [...fill in the blanks...]
In fact, where do the intellectuals go once they have left school? They go to university, where for the most part, they’re conditioned to serve in someone else’s company as an employee.
Before I go any further… I’m NOT against employees or intellectuals. I’m merely observing a pattern widespread in our society that has us chasing an illusion… that the accumulation of intelligence is the goal or the means of getting success. I mean, what is the measure used to signify intelligence?
Knowledge!
When we’re not getting the result we want (more money, time and freedom), what do we pursue?
More Knowledge!
Surely we must soon arrive at the thinking that knowledge is important but it can only be important if it’s coupled with determined persistent action towards a definitive goal.
I certainly know how the pursuit of becoming more intelligent for more success has played out in my life. I didn’t start to get the results that I wanted until I purposely made an internal shift in my thinking. The shift in my thinking was achieved by constant exposure to great teachers that have been before me who showed me there was another life other than the 9-5 existence that we’re conditioned to think is our “job lot”.
I just wanted to share my story with you so if you were taught to believe that intelligence (or knowledge) is the trait that gives you success, which is represented in our physical world as qualifications, then there are more important character traits that you can develop within yourself to give you a greater chance of success.
Emotional traits (measured as EQ) will help you to achieve more in the entrepreneurial world than IQ. The business world is full of taking calculated risks and emotional strength and intelligence certainly helps you to triumph.
Who’s going to succeed the most? The intellectual who ponders the ways of the world, or the half-wit go getting action taker who won’t settle for anything less than the life he knows he deserves.
I think we can all see the answer to this.
Remember to keep conditioning your mind for success. What goes into your mind affects the output you produce and the value you present to your customers. Of course, the creation of financial wealth in your life is a representation of that value you create through your ability to solve your prospect’s problems. Be careful not to chase an illusion and work purposefully on developing character traits that you see are getting your desired result for other people.
To Your Online Success,
The Profit Share
The mutt's nuts or the dog's drivel? I double dare you to leave a comment! :-)
Very articulate- look forward to the newsletters.
Thanks,
/ias/
Thanks Ian, glad I can help. :-)
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Hum, ya, sounds familiar, those old wives tales about life protocal. Good we’re getting it all straightened out now isn’t it!! Thanks for your wisdom, looking forward to reading more from you.
Hi Alison,
Pleased you enjoyed the article. Thanks for dropping by. :)
Very interesting ideas and I pause to wonder if it was not education your parents meant, because clearly those with
higher degrees consistently get paid better than those with just a lower level education. But like the young billionaire of Facebook or the powerful presence of an actor/director/producer like Mark Wahlberg make those stats unreal. What I do hear you saying is that intelligence is found in all of us and if we combine it with persistence and some other skills we can succeed.
I guess I am saying that other traits such as persistence trump intelligence in the traditional sense of the word which the majority of people understand as IQ and academic ability.
Whilst people with degrees may earn more than people without in the employment world, that is not true in the entrepreneurial world.
In fact, intelligence can often get in the way because they over-analyse and get caught in ‘analysis paralysis’ and don’t take massive action to get results.
Still, I understand what you’re saying and appreciate your valuable contributions. :)
An earlier poster commented, “very articulate article…” I’d have to disagree. I read the first few paragraphs, and was so put off by the obvious, egregious grammar errors that I stopped reading. There are subject-verb agreement issues, inadvertent and confusing point-of-view shifts, and lots of other things that even a beginning writer in middle school ought to be able to avoid. I was referred to this site by a Twitter user whom I follow, and I must say I’m quite disappointed.
Not only is this post (and I assume others too) technically poor, but the content is crap. It’s “education,” not “intelligence” that parents warn is crucial to future success, and that’s quite obviously borne out by the data. Certainly diligence and hard work are quite important, but that’s not what this article says at all (at least the part I’ve read). It really reads a lot like the “you don’t have to DO anything to get rich” bullsh*t pitches of innumerable Internet marketing charletans we’re all familiar with.
Truth is, there is no way to get rich quick. Entrepreneurship in the Internet age is really not a whole lot different than it’s ever been. There is indeed some advantage to the flexibility and autonomy of self-employment, and the earnings potential for entrepreneurial efforts, particularly in sales/marketing, are virtually limitless. However, the risk is also a lot higher than in W-2 type employment, and there are numerous other downsides. Most importantly, successful entrepreneurship, whether in 1870 or 2011, requires first EDUCATION. An ignorant, uneducated oaf can’t operate a web marketing business any more than a guy I know (who is currently demonstrating this fact) can take over his dad’s landscape supply business when he’s apparently too dumb to play football (or so it appeared when he was in high school — he did NOT play college ball, by the way).
Successful web marketing, running a successful site, successfully utilizing affiliate marketing opportunities, and other ways of obtaining and monetizing traffic, really involve the same principles as entrepreneurship always has: education and hard work. You first have to know what you’re doing, then you have to actually DO it. Only people who are working hard to sell your lazy a$$ magic beans will tell you otherwise.
Wow, you really didn’t read the article and still decided to make a post based on half of the information available to you. Either that or you totally misinterpreted what I said. In the interests of democracy and freedom of speech, my policy is to allow your comment to be published.
My apologies for not checking my grammar properly before publishing the article, however, to be honest, it really doesn’t matter that much, except to academic types who focus way too much on spelling, grammar and verbs.
I guess you must be unaware of the many 14 year olds making more money online than fully qualified lawyers. I hope this serves as notice to you that this IS actually happening.
I’m sorry you’re sceptical about online marketing. I’m unsure there is anything I can say to persuade you otherwise as your beliefs appear firmly embedded.
If there is any way I can help you to achieve success on the internet, please do call back again and subscribe to my email list.
Thanks again.
I’ve now struggled through the rest of the article (and several others), and my opinion has not changed.
Education is CRUCIAL to entrepreneurial success, online or off. That much is obvious. Intelligence, or academic readiness, simply put, makes education a lot easier to obtain. What you SELL is education. Not to me, or to a lot of other people because your demeanor lacks professionalism and your credibility is injured by the lack of education clearly shown in your posts.
Further, having reflected somewhat on the basic premise submitted here, it’s clearly PERSISTENCE, not intelligence, that the quoted parental warning addresses.
To suggest that education is unimportant is grossly irresponsible (as we see clearly from recent studies, a college undergraduate degree is certainly not the only way–nor even the best way, it appears– to obtain an education. There’s a lot of truth to the old saw, “my college curriculum got in the way of my education…”
It seems to me that, since you’re hawking information, and purporting to “teach” people to make money with web marketing, you wouldn’t badmouth education as a prerequisite for success. It seems awfully counterproductive to me.
OK, we’ll agree to disagree. I cannot help and serve everyone. You’re obviously someone who is not my target market and doesn’t resonate with my thoughts and experience. I do not wish to get into some discussion about morality – you can simply take or leave my opinion like any other piece of literature out there. This is your entitlement and responsibility. Despite this, I wish you every success. :)
“Genius without education is like silver in the mine.” -Ben Franklin (Quick SelfHelp suggestion)
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I’ll be sure to add that quote to my Twitter sequence for @FastSelfHelp
Well said Wayne! I agree with you. Thanks for sharing.
Wayne, you’re confusing the ignorant acquisition of facts and qualifications with intelligence. This is in itself an ignorant position. I have to say that it seems badly written, poorly communicated, and ill thought-out.
Your point about the number of 14 year olds making more money online than qualified laywers is an incredible conclusion to come to. Would that be that lawyers are not as smart as a 14 year old? The key output from an *education* is not the piece of paper. It is the fundamental shift in your approach to learning, to life, to people, and to yourself. You learn to learn – that’s the skill. There is no real substitute to learning. You can get it from the school of hard knocks if you like, but it won’t offer you the same guidance and structure in as constrained a period of time. You can go get a useless piece of paper from a so-called university that used to be a petrol station, but as you can appreciate, that piece of paper is not worth the paper it is written on. Those poorly paid lawyers you were laughing at are as well paid as they can be. Don’t knock them, because they worked hard to qualify in a field that requires rigour, discipline, and some brains. Wanting a free ride on the back of an internet idea is obviously attractive, but there are very few positions at the top of the pyramid. There are no substitutes for hard work, persistance, and intelligence.
You don’t really need a qualification to recognise your intelligence, but it makes the communication of your capabilities much easier for the vast majority of us normal people. One’s inner brilliance is often just a little harder to convey and quite likely to lead to regular failures to convince people how *obvious* it really is.
Take another look at what you’re criticising, and perhaps refocus. You’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Jon,
You may have a different experience in life and are clearly attached to what is right and wrong.
There are several examples of 14 year olds making more money online than many lawyers. I am not saying that the 14 years are more intelligent, just that they’re earning more money.
Lawyers are smart people and have studied hard. I never laughed at any lawyers – this is what you imagine me to be doing as you read this.
We agree that there are no substitutes for hard work, persistence and intelligence.
As for qualifications, they’re massively important in the employment market where you need proof on your CV to get a JOB.
This blog is targeted towards entrepreneurs and Internet Marketers. If you’re not an aspiring entrepreneur or internet marketer, you’re not my target market, however I wish you well in whatever you do.
Wayne
Wayne,
“Who’s going to succeed the most? The intellectual who ponders the ways of the world, or the half wit go getting action taker who won’t settle for anything less than the life he knows he deserves.”
I love this. I home schooled my kids and everyone looked down their nose at me. I think outside the box (obviously). My middle child wanted to go to public school and for her entire first year she was bored out of her mind. She already knew everything they were teaching. Today she has a 4.238 GPA and knows that learning doesn’t come from teachers and books – it comes from inside you.
If you have the drive to get up and do what you want to do you can make it work.
Thank you,
Tammy
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Love this Tammy. I believe it is great for people to do something other than work the sausage machine of school, college, university, corporate JOB.
Thanks for the comment. ;)
Such a great blogpost Wayne, and very well written. Paralysis by analysis is something that has held me back for over ten years in my pursuit of a web based business. Daily action is the only way out of this trap. The belief that we need to know everything is a huge roadblock to success.
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Nick, I’d advise that you opt in for a free bronze membership of The Profit Share and get Turbo Traffic Explosion.
The first video is an interview with Tony Robbins, Frank Kern and John Reese. It might well be one of the most important videos you’ll ever watch. It was for me! ;)
you’ve shocked me O Lambert! …. I’m pondering now to skip “intelligence” to emotionally adapting my intelligence!!!
Sounds like a plan Ibrahim, although I cannot advocate skipping intelligence altogether. Intelligence is actually a very good asset.
Just don’t let it get in the way and make sure that you have the same level of focus on developing your emotional muscle.
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Hi, Wayne:
It’s quite amazing to me how most are groomed from a young age to go to school and get a job and that’s it. That’s the general expectation. What a load of crock.
Why?
Why on Earth is this the overall consensus in this and most countries. What’s interesting to note is that those who end up in entrepreneurship, usually got that way because of a relative who is already one. But it doesn’t have to be this way. It can be set as an expectation for anyone.
To go out there and CREATE something out of nothing. To invent and make stuff that didn’t previously exist and or to make something better, bigger, etc.
Why not school and business. Or just business. Wake up people – the world belongs to owners. Not employees.
Cheers!
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Hi Greg,
Welcome to my blog. :-)
Exactly Greg, although I guess we also have to be thankful that not everyone is hungry for entrepreneurial success and that some will settle for hassle free low reward employment, otherwise how would our streets be clean and our meals be attended to at restaurants.
Thanks,
Wayne
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Wayne, you’ll never know how these words impacted my life on today. What you said herein this article is even more relevant now than before.
In a moment where I am having to rethink, restructure and redirect my plans to build and live the dream that I know in my heart I see and have tasted – it has to come through a ‘fortitudinal’ mindset rather than multiple degree attainment.
Wow, relief is the physical occurrence of truth revealed and discovery happens. Sigh…..
Thank you.
My pleasure Kimetta.
Welcome to my blog. :)
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Very interesting post, Wayne. Although I can agree with you on the fact that a purely intellectual life does lead to a boring life through the rational faculties I think you are dismissing quite a bit. I’ve spent a great deal of time in school and will have to say that nothing enriched my life more than the knowledge I gained. Also, there is a bit more you can do with a degree than working for someones corporation, which is why teaching has always been so appealing to me. Now, if monetary success is your only goal I totally see where you are coming from. However, not all of us possess that paradigm. Overall, very nice post. Definitely struck up some dialogue. Thanks for sharing!
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Hi Wayne,
It seems like constructive debate and feedback, good old fashioned courtesy and an open mind don’t get taught at some schools……
Whilst I have always encouraged my kids to study, it’s more about teaching them to how to plan, set goals and achieve them and that you can achieve success if you believe you can and you are both determined and persistent. I am proud to say they are both independent thinkers who follow their own path, not one that convention dictates.
Do what makes you happy and fulfilled and whatever that is you won’t go far wrong…
I like your thinking, keep smiling and look forward to reading some more of your thoughts in the near future.
Very very true there, most of us live in that illusion that more education leads to a better life, yet its plain to see that most get educated to get employed by those without half their education. Its a high time we shift our mindset if we want to progress and achieve in life. Sorry, but our parents were wrong on that one
I think we need emotional intelligence for personal development.
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I would both agree and disagree to this article. I’m a graduate student and internet marketer, but I never thought my education and academic knowledge is wasted. I love IM very much, and so the entrepreneurship. But education is important too, at least it could enrich your mind.
You seem to degrade a highly educated people for “not making money as well as people with lesser academic degree”. I disagree — you might view this as “becoming a slave to some random boss”. Human beings have their own unique way to contribute to society. My fiance is both an entrepreneur and have a day job in government’s office, he’s a machine designer. He’s very intelligent, hard-working and dedicated. His designed machines eased the life of small farmers because it’s very affordable.
I don’t say money is not important. Money is the reason my fiance and I walked down the path of entrepreneurship. We’re not ashamed to admit it. But the amount of money made, ALONE, is not a sole measure of a man. It’s not intelligence only, or money only, for they are just one of the pieces of broken puzzle. Add a wisdom, willingness to open mind, and understanding — and you add several others pieces to the puzzle. :)