Why Smart People Sometimes Fail: The Key to Success
Sometimes, no matter how smart you are, only working hard will get you what you want. Smart people don’t always learn how to work hard.
A test is one way to demonstrate how smart you are. Intelligent people often earn good grades. But some intelligent people don’t earn good grades or go to college. The definition of smart is the ability to achieve one’s goals with relatively little effort compared to peers. Good grades are not every intelligent person’s goal.
Psychologist Howard Gardner’s theory of intelligence proposes eight areas of excellence. People can be smart in more than one area, but everyone is smart in at least one. There is a common problem among smart people, no matter what their area of specialty. Smart people are often not taught how to work hard.
Working hard means leaning into the discomfort that may be necessary for success. For me, pulling all-nighters to study is nothing. I was tons better at this than making cold calls to sell a product. Leaning into rejection is something I never learned to do. Most of my success had come from my academic prowess. Personal outreach, that’s my nemesis.
About 18 months ago, I attended a business leadership course. The strategy was to dig deep into participants’ psyche and show us how we get in our own way. After spending years…
