You remember him (or her) like it was yesterday. As you struggled with studying, he never had to crack a book in school. As you sat in self-doubt when the teacher asked a question, he always knew the right answer.

He was a winner in the IQ lottery and was blessed with an abundance of intelligence.

Back then, you may have thought this guy was bound to be successful.

As it turns out, intelligence by itself is not an indicator of how successful someone will be. Intelligence, which is pretty much god-gifted, can only take you so far.

The good news is that there are other major factors which can be developed that determine success besides intelligence.

Headway Capital developed an infographic that details the factors that are more important than IQ for success. Along with the infographic are resources that prove their case.

The bottom line is that hard work and social skill development are more important than IQ when it comes to success.

Hard Work

Of the Big 5 Personality Traits, Conscientiousness is the highest determinant of success.

Conscientious people are industrious in that they carry out plans, get down to business, and don’t waste time. They are the opposite of lazy. They are orderly in that they are generally tidy and want things done just so.

Conscientious people get shit done. They are driven to work hard.

But being capable of working hard is more than just being organized. It also demonstrates and develops discipline and resilience.

Openness

Another of the Big 5 Personality Traits that is attached to success is Openness. Those that are open to new ideas and innovation are typically creative.

Conscientiousness and Openness are a combination found in many great business leaders like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerburg, Warren Buffet etc.

Thinking Clearly

Emotional Intelligence, the ability to understand and manage your emotions, is thought to be one of the most important factors in success.

You can have a very high IQ, but if you can’t get beyond the Emotional and Primitive parts of your brain, you’re toast.

People that let their emotions do their thinking for them make bad decisions, and THEN they use their intelligence to rationalize why they did it.

These are the most difficult people to help: smart ones that succumb to their emotions.

I believe it’s why Cognitive Behavior Therapy was created – to make people THINK about their actions. Make them lay it all out so they can see it and then ask “Why the hell would I do that?”

The Vast Majority of Americans Do Not Think Clearly

If you think clearly, you have a big advantage over the masses.

As others succumb to their emotional urges, you can have one up on everyone just by using your God-given, reasoning brain.

For example, if you are eating right and exercising for your health, you should feel good about being both disciplined and thinking clearly. You know what you should do and you act accordingly.

If you’re starving yourself (again) on some fad diet plan so your coworkers don’t think you’re fat or so your doctor doesn’t yell at you, well, please think again. That’s your emotional brain.

Demand Side Sales 101

Good little book by Bob Moesta.

In a nutshell, it’s a customer focused approach to sales. It is unique in that it requires the business person to interview existing customers to find out why they are buying their product.

The premise is that there is a huge disconnect between why the customer is buying and what your sales and marketing team is selling.

For instance in our business, Barb and I promote health. Exercise is proven to prevent all the major killers – cancer, diabetes, heart disease. It helps with staying capable by improving balance and coordination. It adds life to your years and years to your life.

I recently asked an older client why they joined our gym:

“To improve my golf game.”

Boy, did we miss the mark on that one.

Where this individual was an outlier, many others are motivated to join a gym to just lose weight. The focus is not on health, but rather looking better, i.e. thinner.

If you do all the right things to be healthy, you WILL look better, but from a marketing standpoint, we should LEAD with weight loss because THAT is specifically what more customers want.

When we promote health instead of weight loss, we are not connecting directly with prospective clients’ wants. People won’t hear a message they are not concerned with. To attract more people, we need to change our ways.

But we’re not going to.

Though promoting weight loss over health may be a better way to advertise our gym, we believe it sends the wrong message. It tells the public where their priorities (and ours) lie. With weight loss as a goal, people will choose the fastest and easiest way to achieve it. That’s why surgeries, drugs, and fad diets that starve are so popular.

These are solutions that the emotional brain and the Primitive Brain come up with. The Emotional Brain wants you to be thinner to be more socially accepted and the Primitive Brain wants to do so with the least amount of energy expended.

The healthy option to weight loss – the solution your Reasoning Brain comes up with – is exercising and eating right.

Part of our mission is to promote better health. Our clear thinking will hopefully promote others to think clearly.

So start with clear thinking. Start with focusing on your health.

You’ll be more successful because of it.

Ron