IQ and Success

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I know about the many tests that have been carried out to prove that IQ has the slightest correlation to success, and that success is more firmly grounded on one's EQ. But even with all the experimental data I've read about, I also wanted to know what people here personally think about the correlation between one's IQ and success (business in particular, but any input from all areas would be fine). I know that in high school, even the smallest IQ difference leads to huge advantage when learning and understanding concepts, but does IQ matter as much out in real world?

Thanks.
#mind warriors #success
  • Hey,

    I found this article:

    High IQ and Success

    to be informative on the topic. Specifically:

    Stacy
    • [1] reply
    • Intelligence has nothing to do with success.

      What HAS to do with success is determination to achieve your goals.

      Persistence.

      Why?

      If you are determined to achieve your goal you'll do whatever it takes to make it your reality. You will learn from the best, you will instantly apply and you won't let failure have any effect on you.

      See, even if you'll fail over and over and over again you'll learn A LOT each and every time and there will come a time when you'll hit a homerun, so to speak.

      Here is one of the best quotes I've ever heard:

      "Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
      Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
      Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
      Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.

      Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."
      • [1] reply
  • It is a fact that most people that go to college end up working for people who never went to college. 96% of all money made on the planet is generated by 3% of the population, most of whom never went to college. The majority of self-made millionaires I know about never went to college.

    IQ has NOTHING to do with success. However, emotional intelligence is everything when it comes to succeeding in both business and life.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Just curious (and you may be right), but what is your source for those statistics and "facts"?
      • [1] reply
  • A Canadian television program recently tracked down some of the people with the highest IQ scores in North America. One man who has an extremely high genius IQ works as a motorcycle mechanic, hangs out with biker gangs, and is frequently in and out of jail.

    We have all met people who have a lot of "book smarts" but seem to have no "life smarts." Should we really be saying that they are intelligent?
  • IQ is as correlative to success, as my pajamas are to Paris Hilton's success.

    In other words none.

    The right actions, in the right way at the right time will give you success.

    Having good advice, a good attitude and taking massive action will get you there.
  • I was in the gifted programs in K-12 schools. I graduated with honors into college, where I graduated again with high honors.

    My websites, which I usually set up in just a few hours each, and spend less than 3 hours a week running, generate over $350,000 a year in sales and a nice six figure chunk of that is left in profit. I wonder how well they'd do if I spent more than 3 hours a week working.

    I'm 23, I've never needed a job, and don't feel the need to get one any time in the near future, but I invested another $40k of my savings into the masters degree I'm working on now just because I find the material interesting to learn and research.

    So do as many studies as you want to prove people with high IQs end up as bike mechanics to make yourself feel better, but if you go to a conference with a bunch of venture capitalists and CEOs, you'll generally find they are quite intelligent.

    In other words, just because some people with a high IQ don't end up being "successful", doesn't mean they all don't, or that having a low IQ increases your chances at all.
    • [1] reply
    • I think that IQ manners little when it comes to the ingredients for great success, particularly in business. I think the main thing that these people have is an intense desire to succeed, amazing focus and also a deep understanding of human nature. They have a kind of sixth sense that enables them to sniff out what will sell well and what won't. That's nothing to do with intellect, in the end.
      • [1] reply
  • Great IQ doesn't guarantee success but greater EQ guarantee less failure. To Success: There is no failure. So i think the nearest way to success is by developing my personality to be better everyday and learn from my mistakes so i won't fail again.
  • Why would you care about your IQ? Really?
  • I have found that a lot of preparation and persistence can make up a lot of ground compared to IQ -- there are lots of high IQ people who work for lesser IQ entrepreneurs who understand service to customers.

    -- Mark Hendricks
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  • I am currently working on a new eBook "How a Blooming Idiot Makes $3,000 per week on the Internet". I may change the title as this is still in the draft stages. This book is a true story about someone I know. He had a difficult childhood, little education, and is from a blue-collar work background. Today he makes about $10,000 per week, but consistently it averages out to 3-5K per week. He does nothing like those from the business world would do, and he does nothing like all of the Internet Marketers say to do - and yet he makes money hand over fist. My book will detail how he does this.

    I also know people with PHD's who are bums.

    So to sum it all up - a good I.Q. does not mean a person will be successful.
  • I do not believe in the concept and the testing of IQ. Some people are very intelligent academically and score very high on IQ tests, but are hopeless in solving real life practical problems. Some people are extremely fast learners and have great memory but score lowly on IQ. I highly question if IQ score reflect anything worthwhile.
  • I dont visit this subforum much but I have to say I agree with a lot of what has been said here. As a child my IQ was repeatedly tested by the system because I quit school in kindergarten (refused to go was bored to tears) and again in the later years. I know my own IQ and I wouldn't say it has helped in my success in anyway. If anything I think it hindered it a lot because of sheer boredom at what society expected of me in terms of success. I graduated with high honors from high school, barely attending, as a single teen mom. I wrote my entrance exam for Electronics Engineering and recieved an extremly high grade on it that placed me in the top of the class, it started out great, but like everything else I became bored. Decided the heck with what others think success means (I never cared for money, still don't) and went after my own dreams. I am now a mother to 5, a wife and and netrepreneur, earning more each year than both my parents combined and enjoying my life. Yet I look back at what I could have done and some would consider me a failure. I coonsider everything I have done a success. Long story short, IQ is often a hinder not a helper. Think of those with lower IQ's it often hinders them at reaching their potential success, midrange normal IQ's it often holds them where they are for fear of success and high range it hinders because of what those around you expect of you and the inability to turn your brain off.

    Just my thoughts,
    Sylvia
  • It is said that IQ does not have any direct correlation with success in life. Those with very high IQ are not as successful as they are expected to be and this is because real life is totally different from what IQ can perceive. There are success stories of people who have not tested high IQ levels. So to make one success in life, all that is needed is the perseverance to achieve the goal and a definite plan. IQ does not guarantee success.
  • I've known some very intelligent people who had no common sense at all.

    Shirley
    • [1] reply
    • I agree with you guys. I have met many people that, even though you can tell they're not genuises with the highest IQ, have achieved whatever their goals were in life, and I have seen the opposite case as well.

      Our determination of getting what we want is what really counts. There are countless examples out there of people who have had a lot of negative circumstances surrounding them and they have surpassed everything and achieved their goals... I think this is remarkable indeed.

      Dagmar
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  • IQ and EQ both play a pivotal role in deciding your future and your career but equally important is your street smartness. How early and how fast do you read people and how quickly you understand them.
    Having a high IQ level is absolutely a big feather in your hand and you can go way ahead with this attribute.
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  • I've met some smart "idiots" and common sense millionaires. I'd rather be a common sense millionaire.
  • Forest Gump seemed to do OK.

    It's not all about IQ....
    (even for fictional characters)
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    • In my life experiences an High IQ does not equate to Business or Financial success. I know people who have several advanced degrees and can barely make a living for themselves. I know other people who are elementary and high school dropouts who are multi-millionaires.
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  • Having a High IQ without discipline is a recipe for disaster. Starting out in grade school, if someone has a high IQ school will require very little effort and if they are not motivated to achieve, they will have a LOT of free time and get bored very easily.

    American schools are not set up to help the gifted, in fact most of the funds are used to help those who possess the lowest IQ (Special Education).

    Then we all wonder "is our children learning?" (Bush Quote)
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    • Richard Branson is Dyslexic.

      And I think Emotional and Social Intelligence matter more. IQ is too much hype.
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  • When I was a young man in the Army (revolutionary war, I think), someone suggested that I take the MENSA test because someday it would look good on a resume. I passed and just never did anything with it or about it. After a few years I stopped paying the dues and just dropped out of it completely.

    In 1991, (20 years later) after doing something that made me feel especially smart (and, thus, less inferior to the real geniuses), I decided to look into a local MENSA meeting.

    The meeting was at a local hotel bar. There were about 20 people (maybe three women) all with certain areas of interest, sitting around arguing over who knew more about this subject or that. The primary topic always got back to how smart the speaker was.

    The great majority of them were unshaven, unpleasant and unemployed. I doubt that more than three or four in the room had jobs and those jobs were mundane.

    I actually attended three more meetings over the next couple of months just to see if it was a fluke. It wasn't.

    I am not suggesting that this was an example of MENSAs or intelligent people. Rather, this was an example of geniuses who have nothing better to do than to talk about themselves.

    IMHO, it is all about what you DO with your intelligence. Three cheers for Forest Gump!

    Regards,
    Dave S.
    • [1] reply
    • its interesting that you mention forrest gump, i totally agree that intelligence plays a small part in how far you can go in life.
  • lets not forget about Rainman when talking about IQ's either.

    I would definitely go along with persistence and determination route over IQ any day when talking about success. And there is no doubt that success is to each their own.

    It reminds me of the clerk at the liquor store I got to talking with a couple of months ago. Just a great burley looking harley-davidson dude who is always very kind. He told me about how he aced all of his ACTs/SATs etc. after college and his IQ was so high that everyone was pushing and recruiting from around the US to be a nuclear physicist or go work on the space shuttles, etc.

    The stress of this entire situation killed this guy. He looked me dead in the eye and said - "I'll never do anything like that. All I want to do is be a liquor store clerk because I love my job." The guy definitely made my day!
  • Chris Langan is the World's Smartest Man has an IQ of 196. He's spent 20 years being a bouncer at a bar. Well, the deficit between Chris and the average person is nearly 300% greater! Heck, the difference between him and a genius is as great as the difference between a genius and a retarded person!

    Taken from: One Man’s Blog - Specialization is for Insects.
  • Hi Nihilated,

    I always have the belief that high IQ does not guarantee success. If high IQ equals success, then people studying in the Ivy League will all be guaranteed success.(no offense to people studying in the Ivy League)

    Cheers
    Vincent
    Personal Development Blogger

    • [1] reply
    • You do not need a high IQ to get into an Ivy league school, you just need good grades. Good grades and IQ are not the same thing.

      Graduates from Ivy league schools earn more on average than those from community colleges and other middling schools.

      I take it you have never lived abroad beyond G7.

      It is not a coincidence that countries that have its students stay on in school for longer also tend to have a higher per capita income. The problem is probably not chemistry, but probably how it was taught to you.

      Chemistry is not just for future chemists. Medical Doctors, Environmentalists, Petrochemical engineers, chemical engineers, petroleum engineers, veterinarians, pharmacists, geologists, Metallurgical engineers, fertiliser producers, brewers, chemical weapons makers, mass crystal meth producers etc etc. The list is even larger for calculus users.

      Many young people just want to eat cheeseburgers and play video games. This is what really is a waste of time, not chemistry.

      Just because something does not make you money directly, it does not mean it is useless knowing it.

      JKN
  • IQ tests are highly flawed.. Even thought I have a very high IQ I agree that the test does not measure ones intelligent accurately at all..
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  • the real world offer much more complexity that any 'test' and to succeed in the real world you need a much broader scope of knowledge than any 'school' can teach. having said that, you can get an education from an institution or program and duplicate what others have already done, but real success could also be measured by your own personal growth.
  • IQ is a relative thing for those who like numbers. Real intelligence is earned through experience and remembering it as such. We all have big numbers in some area but who cares . Its results that count in life and death.
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    IQ and Success

    I know about the many tests that have been carried out to prove that IQ has the slightest correlation to success, and that success is more firmly grounded on one's EQ. But even with all the experimental data I've read about, I also wanted to know what people here personally think about the correlation between one's IQ and success (business in particular, but any input from all areas would be fine). I know that in high school, even the smallest IQ difference leads to huge advantage when learning and understanding concepts, but does IQ matter as much out in real world? Thanks.