Intelligent people are a lucky lot. Besides scoring good grades in school, their brains are like libraries. They possess numerous ideas that can potentially transform not just their pockets but society. But these sharp minds seem to have extraordinary lives, investments, and business challenges.
The majority of them make good employees, but beyond that, there’s nothing much they do worth writing home about. Past trends have shown that those we consider as weak in class end up pulling a game-changer in life by acing their way through business and investments.
It is no wonder the controversial phrase “C students end up employing A students to work for them” has become so popular of late. Why do these A students perform terribly regarding investment and life goals?
Well, if you are one of them, I am sure you will agree that, at one time or another, you have come face to face with the enemies of progress.
1. Paralysis Of Analysis
They over-analyze situations to the point that they do not make any decisions or take any action. They decide not to decide. So, for example, they look at agri-business from a bird’s eye view and see that despite it offering immense potential, the country is heavily reliant on rain-fed agriculture.
Given the prevailing drought, they shelve that idea. They then look at the business of importing goods from cheaper markets like China and re-selling them locally and conclude that it’s terrible for the economy because it alters the balance of trade.
They keep chewing on facts and theories until the cows come home. They don’t invest in anything their entire lives and end up going down the grave with cabinets full of pending ideas.
2. The Comfort of Good Jobs
Government organizations and blue-chip companies love smart people in equal proportions. So, as the rest of the population struggles to put food on the table, intelligent people enjoy free niceties like house allowance, sitting allowance, medical allowance, etc.
Banks also love these people, meaning they quickly get loan funding against a paycheck. It’s such a comfortable lifestyle when you are brilliant! So they take a back seat, grab popcorn, and cruise through life. This comfort level makes them settle for a below-average life, hardly making meaningful investments in their heydays. They only regret it once they grow too old and must return to the village.
3. They Think They Know Pretty Much Everything
Smart believes there’s nothing new you can teach them. They have acquired several degrees from an elite learning institution, and you have none!
Who are you to advise them? So, they try navigating the murky waters of entrepreneurship using their well-calibrated knowledge drawn from theoretical case studies. As they do that, they lose touch with reality only to come down tumbling.
This inherent belief that “I am too educated to sit with school dropouts” or “My status doesn’t allow me to do dirty jobs” prevents them from making any headway.
No one has a monopoly of knowledge. Even a clueless grandfather in the village can teach you a thing or two about success. One of the most valuable lessons I have learned is that everyone needs help, and the help is not from the billionaires and the top ranks in the economy. It is just within help, and you need to ask.
3. They Are Quite Complicated
Intelligent people have a flair for the unusual, complicated, or different stuff. They don’t like to follow the KISS principle (Keep It Simple and Stupid), an essential ingredient for business success.
You will find them in workshops trying to re-invent the wheel, which was done several decades ago. You can’t blame them. Our education system is a fraud by itself. It teaches us to memorize complex things instead of promoting intelligence. So these intelligent fellows, having gone through the system, come out thinking that life is all about complicating things.
But investments and entrepreneurship are not about complication. It’s about simplification of things. A good example is an application like WhatsApp, a simple innovation that makes life better. It is just a simple re-organization of activities that transformed service delivery. The world out here is not looking for complicated solutions but somewhat simplified models – a truth these intelligent people don’t seem to grasp.
5. They Are Afraid of Failing or Getting Bad Grades In Life
Of course, they spend most of their time in school getting A grades and can’t stomach the idea of getting E grades. In other words, they fear failure. Yet failure is pretty much inevitable in entrepreneurial life. In the process of trying to maintain a clean record sheet, intelligent people end up playing safe. They stick to a lousy job that guarantees job security and do get out. They would rather keep their money in the bank than invest it and fail.
Our schools have taught that failure is BAD and success is GOOD. Students who failed in class were punished, while those who got A grades were celebrated. But that’s not the way things are supposed to be in life. Failure is not that bad after all. Failures are part of life. If you don’t fail, you don’t learn. If you don’t know, you will never change.
Final Word
If you are reading this, chances are you are intelligent. You have a computer, and you know how to use it. You have internet, and you know how to activate and de-activate it.
You have gone through school and have some certificates. You probably have a job and a consistent paycheck every month. Could it be that your smartness is hindering your progress in life?
Well, that’s for you to find out.