SMARTIE PANTS

I was an average student in school.  I was average mostly because with little to no effort I could get A's and an occasional B - except for computer programming, the only D I ever got!  Looking back I wonder if my acceptance of not trying and just getting those grades was partly because I really am not a competitive person.  The real motivator for my smarts is my own satisfaction, and if the subject matter is not interesting to me, there is no real desire to get the knowledge.  The flip side is that when I want something - whether to learn, to achieve a goal, to conquer a fear, to tackle anything I know nothing about, I am tenacious, pithy and somewhat stupidly charge ahead without fear.  I wouldn't really say about myself that I am learned, scholarly, or academic.  I would say that my intelligence is though sharp through having a fast mind, being overly observant, and highly intuitive.  There are differing types of smarts, of intelligence, or brilliance.  I can think of a kid in my class from kindergarten through high school who would be in the brilliant category.  He was socially inept (lacking major smarts in that area), but in kindergarten would read the encyclopedias (for you young people out there encyclopedias are BOOKS not an Internet app!) cover to cover.  Mostly he had snot running out of his nose, pants that were a bit too short, lacking flesh to cover his sack of bone frame and glasses which accentuated all of the above.  I, on the other hand, was commandeering the kitchen in the kindergarten room and telling people how to be efficient:)  I think I googled his name some time ago and he is something like a scientist or biochemist or a researcher for the National Institutes for Health.  His resume compared to mine is filled with degrees and heady, brainy jobs.  The creators of Face Book are intellectually brilliant, and so is Bill Gates.  I think Warren Buffet is both brilliant and intelligent but he also possesses intuitive smarts.  Sometimes extremely brilliant people are so intelligent with knowledge galore that they have no room left in their brain for 1) normal social behavior, 2) inter personal relationships, 3) the ability to lead people.  All three of those things really take another type of intelligence.  I will read anything that is laying around (stopping short of science fiction and romance novels which are both crap!).  In fact, I love to read things I don't necessarily agree with - it opens my mind and helps me know what other people think.  Researchers would say that intelligence is categorized into 7-9 groups which clearly define both left and right brained people and a combination therein.  There are most definitely some "dumber than a box of rocks" people out there.  There are also some "can write an algorithm but can't write a check" sort of folk too.  Then there are those of us that fall somewhere in between on that sliding scale.  What I do know is that intelligence is not the only thing that secures us success.  In fact, it is actually the least of the things needed to succeed in life.  Passion is probably the greatest.