Why Smart People Fail?

Most people make this assumption that the smarter you are, the more likely you are to be successful in life. Especially in college or school, when someone gets good grades and is clearly smart than the rest. We tend to think of them that they are going to be successful in life. But do smart people have higher chance to be successful or do intellect really play any major role in becoming successful?

After some research, i came across these studies which gave me a reasonable answer.

Right after the World War 1, a psychologist by the name of Dr Lewis Terman tried to answer this question bu making an experiment that lasted almost 40 years. Actually, its the longest experiment that has ever been done in history of psychology. He tried to answer this question: whether smart people have any higher chance to be successful than the rest of the people. He started looking for the smartest kids from all around the United States and around 250 000 kids were suggested by different people that these kids clear were clearly smarter than their peers.

But of course, he could not only relay on what people are suggesting. So, his condition was to accept a kid to be smart only if he scored an IQ of atleast 140, which is the genius level. Just so you know, most people score between 90 and 109 and if you are scoring anything above that, you are considered smart. But if you score above 140, you are considered a genius.

Out of the 250 000 kids that were suggested to him from all corners of the United States, only 1487 of them score more than 140 in IQ test, which makes them literally the smartest kids in all of United States. In fact, Einstein for example, scored 160. So, these kids are smart as Einstein or maybe even smarter. He then decided to spend the rest of his life following them and studying them.

After few years of following them, he realized that they are the ones who are getting the best grades in school, winning all kind of competitions and so on. This led Dr Termin to come to a conclusion that these kids are the ones who are going to be the leaders of tomorrow. They are the ones who will become the billionaires, the famous politicians and maybe the future president of United States. But, unfortunately that was very far from the truth.

When these kids had grown up, only a small tiny number of them actually achieved something great in life. None of them could win at least a noble prize. 2 kids who were rejected in the beginning, who were not considered to be very smart like the rest, actually won noble prizes, in fact in physics.

After so many years of research Dr Termin concluded his study with this quote

" We have seen that intellect and achievement are far from perfectly correlated. Being smart is one thing, but achieving something in life is a whole different story. Just because someone is a little smarter than you does not mean he is going to be more successful in life. We have developed this culture where we started overestimating the intellect at a point where we started thinking that its most important tool that you need to be successful, where in fact its not.

So, never let anyone fool you that you are not going to be successful or be a great leader just because you are not getting good grades in college. You might be talented in other areas of life. And who knows, you might end up getting a noble prize.

In our modern society, most businesses are run by 'highly intelligent people', and when businesses fail it’s usually due to these smart leaders’ boneheaded mistakes. There exists far too many examples of this to list them all, but among my favorites is Kodak, a company that invented and then sat on the technology for digital photography because its leadership was afraid it would disrupt their core business (they eventually went bankrupt). And then there is also Xerox, a company that not only failed to capitalize on one of the most game-changing products in history a desktop computer with a graphical user interface but they let Apple employees visit the facility and copy their technology. I know, that is stupid.

But the truth of the matter is that these leaders were intelligent people with supremely impressive track records but seriously? What happened?

Sydney Finkelstein, a professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, spent six years searching for an answer to this question. With the help of his colleagues 51 of the business world’s most notorious failures were studied; interviewing CEOs and people from all levels. But, Finkelstein wanted to understand the inner workings of each business, explore the minds of key executives, and find out what led them to make disastrous decisions.

Finkelstein and his team found that the poor decisions these smart leaders made were sometimes intentional and sometimes accidental, but they all followed a clear pattern to their downfall.

Here’s what the leaders had in common.

1. They viewed themselves, and their companies, as untouchable.
   There’s nothing wrong with having lofty goals or a healthy sense of pride, but these leaders took their success for granted. They became so enamored with their ideas that they believed their competitors would never catch up, their circumstances would never change, and no disruptors would ever surface. These unrealistic expectations made failure inevitable. Leaders must continually question their positions, especially when they’re on top.

2. They couldn’t tell where they stopped and the company began.
   The leaders in Finkelstein’s study had high profiles and were obsessed with company image. As a result, they were too busy being the face of the company to effectively lead it. Not only did this lead to stagnation but it also engendered dishonesty and corruption. A leader who sees a company as his own is more likely to hide anything that could tarnish that image, whether it be low numbers or faulty products.

3. They thought they were the smartest person in the room.
   Many intelligent leaders know quite well how smart they are. Their identities become so wrapped up in their intelligence that they believe input from others is unnecessary. They make decisions quickly and refuse to answer questions when there’s a misunderstanding. Although this may fit the TV image of a strong leader, making split-second decisions with imprudence often leads to major mistakes. Your chance of failure is heightened when you don’t care to know what other people think.

4. They surrounded themselves with yes-men and women.
   Some leaders become so obsessed with loyalty that they expect mindless support for every decision they make. This alienates valuable employees and silences voices that could otherwise help the business succeed. When a leader begins to equate disagreement with disloyalty, or worse—the undermining of their authority—there’s no one left to raise the warning flags.

5. They drove past red flags and warning signs.
   Some leaders are so enamored with their personal visions that they’re willing to drive the company off of a cliff in pursuit of them. Many of these leaders solicit input and suggestions, but they just can’t take their feet off the gas. Persistence is a great quality in a leader but not if it means ignoring the facts.

6. They relied too much on what worked before.
   Evaluating one’s previous successes and failures can help a business thrive, but the past shouldn’t be the driving force behind a company’s future. Finkelstein’s team found that many failed leaders took one pivotal moment in their careers and continually tried to repeat it, even when their previous strategies no longer made sense. Customer needs, technology, and the competitive landscape can change on a dime. For this reason, successful leaders are constantly adapting to their surroundings.

The whole point of this post is that intellect is overrated, but hard work and open mindedness can guarantee you greater success.