"Smart" is Irrelevant

        Today I want to talk to you about why being "smart," is not a big deal. The reason I wanted to go over this topic is because I see so many people held back by this concept or idea that they are not "smart enough." That because they are not smart enough, they cannot create a great life. This is not true in any way. And you do not need to take my word for it, you can easily look to the history books or at society today and find great men and woman that accomplished great things, with little to no formal education or no great intelligence. Example: Tom Cruise was labeled dyslexic as a child. He is now one of the most famous actors in the world. Example: Les Brown was labeled Educable Mentally Retarded. He is now one of the most famous and recognized motivational speaker in human history.

        So why am I telling you this? Im telling you this because this box society has created for everyone is a lie and it only serves to keep people from ever achieving what they are truly capable of. We were brought up believing that our success would be directly proportionate to how well we did in the classroom. More often than not, this is not the case. If it was, then we wouldn't have people like Les Brown, Steve Jobs, Inky Johnson; who all struggled in school. Now, I am not saying that your ability to remember things and your ability to retain large amounts of data for long periods of time is not helpful, it is. What I am saying is that society has painted it to be the biggest and most important requisite for anyone looking to be great, when in reality this is not true. People can be great without having an IQ equal to or close to that of Einsteins.

        While there are many things that can help you achieve greatness; including how smart you are, there are others that have much more potential and viability. Today I want to discuss 1 very simple quality we all posses in abundance. Again, there are many, an entire book can be written on the subject, I will surely write more articles on this, but for now I want to share 1 with you. 

        But first, you need to make a decision to let go of the idea that your IQ is holding you back or that you've always been stupid, or that you've always had trouble learning new things, or that you forget things, FORGET ALL THAT STUFF. Even if it's true, believing it and invalidating yourself like that is not good for you! And you don't have to lie to yourself either, you just need to look at these things through a new perspective. For example, if I am a slow runner, I am not going to tell myself "I'm super slow," or "I suck at running."Like I said, even if they're true, there is no value in saying those things about myself. So what am I gonna say? How am I going to look at a situation like that? Well I'm going to start by accepting the truth of the matter, without putting myself down. I don't need to say "I suck", I need to say "I’m not as fast as I want to be, now HOW can I get faster?" At first this may be difficult for you to do but the more and more you realize that your IQ and all those qualities that "smart people" have and you don't, don't matter, the easier this will become. 

        Okay so the first really helpful quality that we all posses is the ability to work. By "work", I mean the ability to start, follow through, and complete tasks. This is critical! Your ability and willingness to work will determine how much you get done in life, and how much you get done in life will will determine what and how much you accomplish in life. Why else is work so important? Well it doesn't cost you anything, it's not a commodity, and if you do it enough, how "smart" you are will be of less and less importance. Example: You need to pass some exam but you don't fully understand the concepts. If you properly work through enough practice exams sooner or later you will pass that test. In other words you would have succeeded despite not being very "smart." You could be the smartest human being on the planet with the highest IQ, if you're unable to start and complete tasks, you'll spend all of your life running in circles and your life will be a chaos. Right now you're probably thinking, "I knew that already." Of course you did, what I'm trying to stress here is how important it is. We all know that working extra and putting in the extra hours will lead to success but we don't know how important this is. And thats what I'm trying to handle with this article. That your success, in large part depends on your willingness and ability to effectively work(start, follow through, and complete tasks.) 

Important Note: If you do not complete a task, you cannot call it work. 

-Enrique the Great