One of the things that I've noticed throughout college and adulthood is how limited the perspectives were among the "smartest" people I knew as far as possible ways to make a good living. The majority of my friends from college work in one of five industries:
- High Finance
- Software
- Law
- Medicine
- Consulting
After that, there are a bunch of long-tail professions my friends fall into. Sure, those are big, big industries that attract loads of bright people who collaborate and compete with one another. But think about how many things don't fall under any of those. Look around the room that you're sitting in right now and ask where all of the things in it came from. Most of them were probably manufactured somewhere, which means that they had to be made, marketed, shipped, and sold by lots of people you've probably never thought about before. In that supply chain there un-sexy businesses that nonetheless make big money doing what they do. Someone has to run those companies that all of the bankers and app developers shun ;)
I return to this question often at Smart Like How, although I look at the problem a bit differently. For me, the question most of us encounter more often is how to stand out among a group of smart, hard-working people when you aren't the hands-down smartest person in the room. Most of the time, young professionals in this situation respond by attempting to outwork each other and push their limits of exhaustion trying to out-compete all of the other smart people. I call this the Hard Work Paradox, because the smartest, hardest-working people are actually the least able to differentiate themselves on the basis of hard work. And besides, just working hard doesn't guarantee that your output is more innovative or accurate than someone else's - especially if that less-than-intelligent person in your eyes sees the problem differently than you do.
I'd highly recommend that anyone interested in the topic check out the following articles on how to succeed despite not being the absolute smartest person out there. Even if you think you are, you'll benefit from understanding how to translate IQ into business value:
- Four Things You Won't Hear During Orientation
- The Hard Work Paradox (Part 2): What I Learned by Watching Other People Succeed
- Want to Build Career Momentum? Start By Figuring Out What Your Job Really Is
- Every Business Has Hidden Problems (and That’s a Good Thing)
- Building Momentum: Become an Authority on Something Valuable
- Be Careful What You Get Good At
- When Success Becomes the Enemy: The Promotion Snowball Effect
- Not a Data Scientist? You Can Still Be Data Savvy
- How to Drive Adoption of Your Ideas
- The Seven Types of Failed Thought Leaders
This article is owned by:
Christian Bonilla, Author of "Smart Like How: The Hidden Side of Career Success"
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