Imagine unexpectedly being the person in charge of a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate company overnight. Do you think you will have what it takes to run it and make it more successful in the years to come, or will you lead it to failure?
Although successful people indeed have great minds, a bigger picture is yet to be painted.
What do you think the new Tesla auto model would look like if you were to be the company’s CEO tomorrow? Or do you even have a single idea how what it should look like? I mean, is there even a chance you’ll be at the same level as someone who built a multi-billion-dollar asset?
The questions might have put you in an awkward spot, and it must have crossed your mind that success might not be meant for you. However, here’s the truth: There is no association between being successful and being smart.
If you would notice, millions of smart people are simple employees living average lives. At the same time, some highly successful people aren’t smart at all.
Co-founder of the restaurant reservation software company Resy and Empathy, Gary Vaynerchuk, even stated that he could sit around for about 6 years and talk about the things he is very bad at.
So, how do people become so successful without having a sharp wit?
They are not smarter than you, they just focus on being smart once.
Determining how smart you are by what you did in the past is so trivial.
Olivia was always one of the most intelligent kids in her class. He has always been good at doing her work, but upon checking his social media account, it seems like the people she outperformed at school have achieved a lot more than her.
Likewise, her colleagues who started their career behind time have now leapfrogged her. She came to a point where she wondered if he was really smart or not.
Does it sound familiar? You might relate to Olivia yourself or have a friend or relative who struggles with similar sentiments.
Some people sabotage themselves with unhealthy descriptions of what being smart means. Thoughts like, “I was never smart to venture in such kind of investment,” or “I was not enough to pull off that work” often creeps in because they tend to look in retrospect.
The missed opportunities often lead smart people to make dumb decisions to make up for their lost chances. This is why they are apt to venture into investments with insane leverage and ruin their finances.
Bear in mind that your previous doltish performance won’t determine your overall future success.
For instance, people who had invested in Twitter early when the platform was in its infancy made a lot of money are now called successful. Some didn’t invest in the mentioned company but made good profits in their investment.
However, this doesn’t mean that they are smarter than you. You are getting this all wrong if you think so.
Successful people aren’t actually smart in all areas of their life all the time. They surely make the right calls and are well-versed in what they should do. But all it takes is for you to be successful is to be smart once.
You can be dumb as much as you like, but you need to be smart at one thing to outweigh everything else you’re dumb at.
They are not smarter than you, they just know how to apply their knowledge.
One of the things you might be getting wrong is being smart is all about having broad knowledge. But technically, being smart actually have two components: (1) acquired knowledge (2) and application of acquired knowledge.
The problem here is that people tend to overlook the second part.
There are walking many walking encyclopedias out there that have nothing to offer aside from their non-tangible intelligence. It is important to understand that application is way more significant.
You can think about it this way. To learn how to ride a bike, there are two ways you can follow:
- You read the manuals on the internet and watch others how they do it; or
- You just hop immediately on it with helmets on, hoping for the best
Your first ride might not be perfect in any way, but as long as you’re not heading to a flight of stairs, you’ll probably do just fine. Doing it right the second time around is what actually makes you smart.
Putting things simply, your first smart call can is what sets you up whether to stop or pursue your new venture. And the second time is what you can consider a successful endeavor.
Now, how do you confirm a smart move? The answer lies in the future. Even Bill Gates didn’t know if he was making a smart call while starting Microsoft. He even has no single idea if he was doing everything right.
Successful people are those who make a knowledge-oriented bet with the intention of adding value to it while letting the game just play itself out. The game will play itself out as long as you know what you are doing.
They are not smarter than you, they only know how to network.
Networking is one of the secrets of successful people. You present yourself and make connections to establish relationships and rapport. However, there is an overlooked misunderstanding about networking.
The truth is that networking isn’t about knowing many people in different industries. Research has shown that you only need to reach out to about six people on earth—the concept of six degrees of separation.
Six degrees of separation revolves around the idea of knowing about six or fewer social connections. It is also referred to as the six handshakes rule, where a “friend of a friend” can be connected to two people is a max of six steps.
The concept of six degrees of separation originally emerged back in 1929, when a group of people played a game intending to connect any person in the world through the chain of five others. The idea, however, was only popularized in 1990 through John Guare’s play.
Going back to the main point, it’s not about ‘how many people you know, but ‘who’ you know. This boils down to the fact that being in the right room is even more important than the reason why you went there in the first place.
Have you heard of the story behind Nike’s logo?
The logo designer of Nike was a student at Portland State University back in 1971 named Carolyn Davidson. She doesn’t have enough money to purchase her painting supply needs in school. Hence, her professor came to her rescue by giving her a little side project to design a logo for his running shoes business for only $35.
Carolyn created multiple variants, and the professor chose the one that sucks the least. After a couple of years, she ended up working for Nike and received a confidential amount of the company’s shares.
They are not smarter than you, they only know how to network.
Like how you can’t time the market, there is also no perfect time to activate your work. There’s no way to predict when you will be successful, and sometimes it’s all about luck. Just do everything you need to do now.
