When It Comes To Success In Business, EQ Eats IQ For Breakfast - Forbes

For a very long time now I've been able to identify with the sentiments below. Whilst in Uni and later on in life I had always felt I have average IQ but how I related to others in life got me through the day, so to speak, and allowed me to achieve what I wanted to. Anyway interesting read below for those interested.

Source: When It Comes To Success In Business, EQ Eats IQ For Breakfast

Chris Myers
CEO and startup founder

When I was younger, I bought into the fallacy that the “smartest” person always won. I pushed myself to achieve the highest scores, earn the most recognition, and excel in every field. I worked as hard as I could, but I almost always fell short of my goals. Growing up, I often found myself surrounded by people who were smarter and far more talented than I could ever hope to be. This left me feeling as though I was destined for a life of mediocrity, forever destined to live in the shadows of others. Despite this, I always seemed to excel in the workplace. Throughout my career, from my first internship to my stint in corporate America, I managed to gain the trust and respect of my managers and peers. As I climbed the proverbial ladder, many of the peers who were undoubtedly smarter than me jeered. They claimed that the people I worked for were idiots and that I was merely lucky. Still, I continued to move forward much to their chagrin.

...

It turns out, success in both life and business is a matter of emotion, relationships, and character, rather than raw intelligence. In fact, throughout my career, I’ve learned three facts that every successful person seems to remember.

1. EQ trumps IQ
2. Humility goes a long way
3. It all comes down to grit

... read more
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Any comments on IQ and EQ welcome.

 

Will read more fully in a moment but my first thought is that Kerry Stokes (amongst others) lived the thread title. His biography/autobiography is an interesting insight, especially his younger years and starting business.

 

This is where the creativity and smarts got those like Richard Branson, Kerry Stokes to their position

I relate this to 'you are the average of the 5 people (I think) who you associate yourself with. I also see this is where mentors come in very importantly - they teach you the 'how' - often can't get his from books, learning etc

For me, in my and my partner's recreation, we associated with many business owners. I could see they thought differently, looked at obstacles differently. I thought differently. Now that our hobbies have changed, I'm not associating with them half as much and my thinking has changed (for the poorer).

The jury is out for me on this one... EQ will see it as a journey.

 

@Mac Fields thanks for the recommendation on Stokes autobiography. Ordering now. Also curious why you changed hobbies ?

thanks

 

My generation (X Gen) was definitely still being sold on the story of 'go to a good school, get the best grades, get a degree and become a doctor, engineer or lawyer and success is yours, or at least that's what it felt like to me and the school I attended. Quitting university to start your own business/start up was not a cool thing yet, though that's exactly what was being done by Microsoft and a few others right at that time

The ability to persevere, interact positively with others are certainly large multipliers adding onto what you would define as school intelligence, perhaps a reasonable description for IQ.

Look at certain famous business people who are dyslexic and how that constraint has actually served as a positive, forcing them to focus on building teams and businesses.

 

Thanks for the link,if you want a good read about different business people and success and failure,the autobiography on Sir Ricard Branson --Losing My Virginity --published in 1998 is well worth the time to read..



List of people diagnosed with dyslexia - Wikipedia

 

Tarmac rallying... maybe I'm just cycling out of it for now. Sure we'll be back.

 

Another great read. Got me into (business) autobiographies. Love to read about how people think - what makes them tick and how do they go about it.

 

Read Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. Great autobiography.

 

Agree,
What are businesses? They are really people and processes working together. People are emotional creatures...just read some comments or view points on this forum!
When younger I assumed academic intelligence was they key, who ever was top of class would succeed, yet later too found out some did some did not (some will not be open minded, some know better, some will not listen, some will not risk and try, some will not want to deal with others, some will not understand....).
Interesting point... while starting out working in the corporate world eventually staff members/colleagues approached me to extract from other staff members/colleagues help. Eventually I asked, "Why don't you ask him/her yourself?", and the response was, "...because they always help you, they always tell you the answer".
Reflecting back I realized why they always helped me, it was because I too gave them my quality time, regardless of the schedules, workload, etc... So in return they gave back their time, their respect back!
Like the article said and unknown then to me:
Maya Angelou once remarked, that “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Another incident... we had a staff member move in and various 'bad' stereotypes about him circulated, but I always treated or gave every person same opportunity. Again, this proved others to be wrong, or perhaps it was just me having no issues and working together well while others didn't.
Once a friend's elderly friend asked me, "How did you become so wise?" an I replied, "I never considered myself smart..", yet I was given a definition that there is a difference between being academic smart and just wise in life.
Many such incidences have helped to shape my life, by being humble, honest, and treating everyone with the same respect we wish to be treated, those close to us or those around us, eventually learn and take notice.
IMHO, I think it is the key, how one feels!

 

Something along those lines:
10 things extraordinary people say every day