Why It’s So Much Better to Be Curious Than Smart
Intelligence can only take creators so far.
“He is so much more smarter than me.”
“He was born naturally smart.”
“She has the intelligence gene.”
I think we as a society are inclined to believe this. As soon as we hear about a certain success story, we scamper to find out what kind of education or schooling that person had, whether or not that person had some sort of financial help, and if that person demonstrated any sort of intelligence at a young age.
And that makes sense.
Intelligent people are able to solve problems better, know how to recognize great opportunities, and are able to utilize their skills to excel at hard tasks.
That is why it may seem easier to just assume that only intelligent people can accomplish great feats and are the most likely ones to be successful at starting companies and businesses.
In fact, 6.8% of the global billionaire population or 188 billionaires are Harvard University grads.
Additionally, famous billionaires that most people hear about went to prestigious universities such as:
- Billionaire / Company / University
- Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook / Harvard
- Bill Gates / Microsoft / Harvard
- Larry Page / Google / Stanford
- Sergey Brin / Google / Stanford
- Jeff Bezos / Amazon / Princeton
Because of this, many people feel that because they haven’t attended a prestigious university or are not naturally intelligent, they can’t achieve massive success.
However, not everyone wants to achieve massive success. Most people want to get a financially secure job and not have to worry about money. Others want to become managers or attain higher-level positions in their respective careers.
It’s a common notion to believe that success only attracts those who are the most able to achieve it and those achievers are intelligent people.
But that is wrong thinking. The more you believe in that, the more success will run away from you.
So if you believe you have no natural talents or intelligence, what do you do?
You become more CURIOUS.
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” — Albert Einstein
Curiosity is the gateway to undiscovered opportunities.
First, let’s define curiosity or what it means to be curious.
Curiosity is a strong desire to learn, know, or advance your understanding on something of interest or importance to you.
When you are curious, you naturally take it upon yourself to learn something more. It doesn’t matter to you if the topic is boring, too hard to understand, or not worth pursuing.
When you become curious about something, you traverse all boundaries and subsequently ignite a fire in your mind that doesn’t get extinguished until you fully understand what you are trying to achieve.
That is where the hidden advantage of curiosity lies.
When you are naturally curious, you are constantly in learning mode. You try to do everything in your power to somehow feed so much information in your brain so you have a full grasp of the material.
Curious people are always asking questions and are in the lookout for answers. They are not afraid to ask others for their differing ideas, opinions, and perspectives.
It also turns out that an overwhelming majority of successful people are curious.
Albert Einstein: “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries to comprehend only a little of this mystery every day.”
Bill Gates: “Curiosity is an amazing thing where you try to predict what is going to happen, and then, when it doesn’t, you think: Well, that drug didn’t get invented, that stock didn’t go up, that approach wasn’t popular. What is it about my model of the world that’s wrong? Who could I talk to? What could I read?”
Jeff Bezos: “Position yourself with something that captures your curiosity, something that you’re missionary about.”
It’s not just about these quotes on curiosity that shows how some of the most successful people are always asking questions and trying to improve their skills.
A majority of the world’s billionaires regularly have reading as a habit. Bill Gates reads almost 50 books a year while Warren Buffet spends 5–6 hours of his day reading. Elon Musk read books on aerodynamics and rockets when he was starting his company, SpaceX.
It’s not only the world’s billionaires. Based on research by Thomas Crowley, 85% of self-made millionaires read two or more books every month.
Additionally, these people are quite selective in the types of book that they read. They regularly read books about self-improvement, biographies, self-help, finance, etc.
The very fact that these people regularly read books to improve themselves shows how curious they are. Curious people are constantly and persistently building knowledge and are always finding some new areas to explore.
By having a habit of reading books, these people can expand their knowledge and skills into so many different and unrelated areas. One day, they might be reading a finance book, the other day could be self-help, while the other day could be a biography of a famous person.
Reading books helps fuel a person’s curiosity and encourages that person to look at life with different perspectives. With new knowledge and skills in hand, people can use this to become better at life.
It’s not just that successful people are naturally intelligent even though it may seem like that. What most successful people have in common is that they are curious and they use this curiosity to drive themselves forward.
Curiosity can help propel you forward.
The only way curiosity can help drive you forward and gain undiscovered skills is when you have the internal desire to satisfy your hunger for improvement.
In theory, that should be easy since curious people are naturally hungry for improving their knowledge.
If you are someone who wants to become a better writer, you can either say “I was not born with exceptional writing skills” or you can do something about it by increasing your writing skills.
A curious person won’t care that he/she does not have any natural talents or skills but because that person is curious, he/she will do anything to acquire the necessary skills, mindset, and knowledge of a good writer.
A curious person might:
- Buy an online writing course tailored to beginners
- Hire an online or physical writing coach
- Read writing books
A curious person is always on the lookout for opportunities and unique ideas that they can take advantage of in order to satisfy their hunger for improvement.
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”— Benjamin Franklin
Even though the curious person never had any natural writing skills, it doesn’t matter. As long as that person continually invests in improving his/her writing skills, always seeks to better himself/herself as a writer, and learns from other greats, then over time he/she will become a great writer.
It’s just about putting in the hard work, time, determination, etc. to improve your skills and always being hungry for more improvement.
Takeaways
“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” — Tim Notke
Now this article isn’t about working hard but rather about being curious. However, this quote is related because curious people work hard.
When curious people have a curiosity or a desire to learn more about something, they do whatever it takes to get a grasp on that idea or skill.
They read books, use their free time to improve themselves, invest on online courses and skills, etc.
Over time, this can add up significantly and then any distinction between an intelligent/talented person and a curious/hard worker disappears.
Now is the time to get rid of the common misconception that you can’t do anything to improve yourself. Today, we have the internet which is a MASSIVE library of ideas, skills, and knowledge.
We still have HUGE volumes of books from where we can learn old and new skills and ideas.
Get out there and learn! Never stop being curious and hungry for more!
