DISPELLING THE MYTH OF INTELLIGENCE

For a long time society at large has looked at the levels of education as a measurement of intelligence and only recently have we began to realize that for the most part it is largely a myth. First it is critical to recognize that there are many kinds of intelligence and how we learn can vary from one person to another as much as our fingerprints. In fact, it is probably safe to say that no two people learn the exact same way, and it is even more likely that our one-size fits all way of measuring intelligence is just as flawed.

Because of arcane beliefs such as how much we can remember, or the speed that we can remember it, are somehow a general measure of human intelligence has been a demoralizing millstone around the neck of so many who don’t fall into that narrow category. Because of distinctions such as RIGHT BRAIN and LEFT BRAIN BIAS (which we will talk in future discussions when we look at Creativity), there are literally many millions of people who believed falsehoods they were told about their intelligence and it undermined their ability to realize their full potential. To that end let show a list of people and ask what do you think all of these notable people have in common? Consider that question as you read this list.

Peter Ustinov

Patrick Stewart

Kemmons Wilson

Anthony Quinn

Sydney Poitier

Tommy Lasorda

Isaac Merrit Singer

Alfred E. Smith

Sean Connery

Charles E. Culpeper

Robert De Niro

Richard Desmond

Horace Greeley

J.R. Simplot

Thomas Edison

Henry Ford

H.G.Wells

Andrew Jackson

W. Clement Stone

Jack London

Daniel Gilbert

Patrick Henry

Peter Jennings

Ansel Adams

Julie Andrews

Brooke Astor

Richard Branson

Walt Disney

Danny Thomas

Robert Maxwell

No doubt you will recognize many of these people, and there are many, many more that could be on this list, but I didn’t want to beleaguer the point—all these people have something in common. Can you guess what it is? They are all high school dropouts.

Now, I mention this not to disparage education, or for that matter, the people on this list. My thought is rather the opposite, to demonstrate that intelligence is not as simple to understand, or as easy to measure, as many people think.

Each one of these people (and many, many more) did not have the benefit of formal education and yet they excelled. Some walked away from formal education because it did not teach them in a way that they could learn. Either way, interestingly, there are just as many on the complete opposite end of that spectrum who have had all the educational benefits in the world available to them and yet they failed miserably.

I have known several Harvard and Yale grads who came in with an air of elitist entitlement, cloaked in arrogance, and in a short amount of time, crashed and burned, taking all those with them who bought into the myth that they were somehow better. Now again, let me be clear. We have many great institutions of higher learning in this country not limited to Ivy League colleges, but they are not a true indicator of intelligence, only of educational achievement. My real push back is on the idea that they are better than anyone else.

There is in fact a “paradox” in that the people we consider to be the smartest and the brightest, are usually not the ones historically who have become great achievers, or highly successful. Of the worlds top billionaires less than 20% had college educations. And to be brutally honest the unemployment lines are filled with PH-Ds and intellectuals. The question is why? Perhaps the first place to look is in how we discern who we think is intelligent and who is not.
Education, or higher education, is not an indicator of how intelligent we are. Even the measurement of how much we know is not really relevant.

A good example is a man who owns a warehouse and in that warehouse he stores boxes of books. We can measure how much he knows about the boxes in his warehouse and we might be able to measure how much he knows about what is actually in each box, but the inference that he automatically knows what is in the books, in the boxes, in the warehouse simply because he owns the warehouse, is ludicrous.

Likewise, all the data in the world stored in a brain that doesn’t know how to use it, is worthless. True intelligence then is not in measuring volume or even speed, it is in the cognitive ability of our brains to connect the dots; to discover new ideas and draw new conclusions from what we have stored. It is in that affinity of a deeper understanding that the true “power” of our intellect resides.

But just when we think we understand intelligence based on cognitive ability it takes another paradoxical turn. What happens if there is something that can dramatically affect how we look at what is in those boxes, or the books inside those boxes? And to make it even more perplexing, what if that “something” is intangible—abstract—and immeasurable?

Have you ever wondered why you can remember certain things forever while other thoughts or memories disappear? If you have ever crammed for a test in high school or college, how much of what you forced into your brain stayed with you? If you are like most people the answer is probably not much. There is a very simple reason why.

Using the book warehouse analogy, imagine yourself in the warehouse. Which boxes do you continue to go back to? They are the ones that contain the books that you like, or you find interesting, or maybe the books you even love. The point is you have prioritized the boxes and the books in them based on an “emotional” preference.

Now you have discovered the most powerful processor in how we think, process and remember. It is our EMOTIONS and it has a dramatic affect on what we reatin and how we use it.

The challenge in understanding EMOTION based intelligence is, unlike LOGIC based intelligence, it is not made up of symbolic data such as figures or facts. As a result it cannot be quantified or measured. The idea is tantamount to using a yardstick to measure an idea or a feeling.

There is no way to measure inspiration, creativity, tenacity, or any of the other wordless emotions that make up our Emotion based Intelligence –just as there is no way to quantify those negative emotions that make up our darker side, such as fear, or anger, or deceit.

The implication is then clear. How emotional we are about a subject or idea plays a huge role in how we remember it. Emotion based intelligence knows no time limit. There is no shelf-life for inspiration, or passion, or tenacity; and in fact, these typically grow stronger with time, not weaker. To some extent our emotional attachment to thoughts or ideas may even be the means our brains prioritize the importance of thoughts or ideas. If you think about what has inspired you, or what you are passionate about, or even things that you have just taken an interest in, they all take precedence over things that you just know.

Memory classes suggest that keys can be established to help you remember certain facts and it is an effective way to retain facts for the moment, but when you find ways to stimulate your interest, you create the catalyst for the kinds of networking in your brain that connects the broad range of experiences and data that you have stored.

Experts tell us that the true innovations and innovators we will see in the future will not be and come from people who are specialized in only one field, but rather from those who have developed many different interests, in many different fields, some that may even, at times, seem at opposite ends of the spectrum from each other. Those people, those passions, will become the common denominator where the seeds of tomorrow’s future will lie.
Once we learn the value of passion and inspiration, we can find ways to apply that learning skill to anything we choose. Pursuing diverse passions, even seemingly unrelated ones, forces your horizon to become broader; the warehouse where they are stored becomes larger as well, and at some point they expand the places where the dots connect. When that happens what’s in the boxes becomes richer and deeper in value.

Taking our understanding even a step further, again returning to the question of how someone can be brilliant in one area and absolutely ignorant in another. In 1983 a man by the name of Howard Gardner posed the idea that intelligence is not just one general ability, but rather, many abilities. In his research he divided human intelligence into eight separate areas and even he admits that there may be more. They are:

• Spatial

• Linguistic

• Logical-mathematical

• Bodily-kinesthetic

• Musical

• Interpersonal

• Intrapersonal

• Naturalistic

Understanding and recognizing each of these very separate areas, at least for now, is not as important as knowing that they exist. What is interesting about Gardner’s divisions is that for the first time the broad spectrum intelligence was defined in both “Emotional” and “Logic” subcomponents and in so doing he gave a rational explanation for how someone could be a genius in one area and totally ignorant in another.

For years it has been easy, even for people with highly defined senses of emotional intelligence, to discount their inner thoughts and feelings, and as a result shortchange much of their natural ability. Finding those things that inspire you or intrigue you is key to making them become a passion.

The saying that life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away, is perhaps no more pertinent than in understanding the importance of our emotional intellect.

As we begin to understand how many different types of input we have, we begin to realize that often there are abilities hidden in how we feel, as much what we know.

The best sword in the world is only as good as the warrior who wields it. The real measure then of intelligence is not in how much we have stored in our warehouse, but how we use it. To quote Lex Luther in the movie SUPERMAN, “Some people can read War and Peace” and get nothing from it while others can read the back of a matchbook cover and unlock the secrets of the universe.”

WISDOM

It is said that as we age we grow less able to learn new things--that intelligence is only for the young. My thought is they couldn’t be more wrong. If you touch a hot stove you learn very quickly not to touch it again, no matter what your age. Unlike LOGIC based intelligence which many believe has limits, our emotional intelligence has no limit.

When we age, I believe what is really happening is that our intelligence changes, growing deeper and more complex, drawing in new complex networks and other ideas. Our response appears slower, but it is only because we are pulling in much larger fish. The evidence of that is a thing we call “wisdom”, something that only comes later in life, when data becomes connected to other ideas and other experiences and is much more complex. We will look at this more in depth when we look at Creativity, but for now, it is only important to know that you can continue to learn, continue to grow, until your last day.

You may never be as smart as you would like to be, but I have never encountered a single individual who wasn’t a great deal smarter than what they thought they were. Finding the hidden potential in all of us begins with simply finding the door.

For people in sales, understanding how your individual intellect works and finding the unique drivers that stimulate your interest, that inspire you, that motivate you to think greater thoughts and commit greater actions, is the key to unlocking the universe with all its amazing possibilities. When what you do becomes a passion, you will never again be locked into the mindless routines that take you know where, you will not be relegated to just following the crowd, or living your life only in a reactionary mode. For life to have meaning it has to be more than a “knee-jerk” reaction to the world around you.

# Intelligence, #Kim Michael, #Myth of Intelligence, #Quintessential Salesman, #Sales Blog

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