you don't need intelligence

Firstly, thanks to everyone who writes back after reading these…if you have any ideas, opinions, or thoughts, I love hearing from you! Cheers.

When we are young, we often think about what qualities we would require to become successful. 

I always believed intelligence was on top of that list. But over the years, I realised that was not the case. 

I saw less intelligent people, accomplish wonderful things, and I thought ‘Hmm, maybe intelligence is not so important after all.”

I thought about it some more and came to the conclusion that there were several qualities that were superior to intelligence. 

Like perseverance, patience, determination, etc. I realised that any form of success, required a combination of these qualities. Not just one.

And there are various ways through which they can be built.

Schools and colleges make an attempt to inculcate some of these qualities, in hopes that we can emulate the achievements of those we admire. While overall it’s not a very comprehensive attempt, they do a decent job with a couple of qualities like ability to work hard, punctuality, etc. 

Self help books try to do their bit by educating the masses about things like Time management, discipline, habit formation, etc. 

But I noticed there was one quality in particular, that did not come up often enough in most conversations around success and human achievement.

Upon further thought, it occured to me that most of the outcomes, actions, and decisions in our lives, are a result of the presence or absence of this one thing.

History is proof enough for us to conclude that it’s one of the most important qualities in high achieving men and women. 

I would also argue that it’s one of the hardest to develop. Partly because the presence of this quality, or the lack of it, is governed by a lot of factors including upbringing, circumstances, etc. 

The quality I am talking about is courage. 

Now on the outset, it looks like any of the other qualities on the list. But I can assure you that’s not the case. 

If you are serious about doing something meaningful with your life, I recommend you read on. 

There are few things that will ‘Make or break’ your life. Intelligence is not one of them. Courage is. 

And here’s why:

1. Courage in decisions:

Courage forms the cornerstone of our decisions making process. Courageous people make their decisions very differently when compared to people who are scared. 

Most people live their life on the back foot. Reacting to things that happen to them. Never stepping outside their comfort zone. Never taking any risk. These people continue to live underwhelming lives. (Which is not necessarily a bad thing)

But here’s a fundamental rule of life. 

The rewards you get for your achievements are directly proportional to the level of risk you took in achieving them.

This means, people who have courage take more meaningful risks in their life, which results in them getting rewarded better, and overall, seeing better outcomes in their lives. 

Think of the most successful people you know, and go pick up a book about their lives. And you will see the level of risk they took to be there. Go read ‘Elon Musk’ by Ashley Vance. Or ‘Shoe Dog’ by Phil Knight.

These people don’t just get to be where they are magically. They have taken obscene amounts of risk, put their entire lives on the line to be able to be where they are now. 

Learn how to develop the courage to take riskier decisions. Do it slowly. Take small risks. But do it nonetheless. 

Because without it you choose to live a life void of adventure, and more importantly you let so much potential go to waste.

An important point to note here is courage, risks, and rewards are relative. For someone who makes 10,000 rupees a month, spending 1 lacs in savings to setup a business is a massive risk. And if it works out, will reward them proportionately. 

But at the same time, for someone who makes 1 lac a month, dropping 1 lac rupees on an investment is not that big of a risk. And yet most will not do it. 

So if you’re trying to audit the level of risk you take in your life, remember to do so in relation to your situation. 

2. Courage in actions

People who have courage will never shy away from taking action. Because they’re not afraid of failing. 

Most people will never do the things that they want to do because they’re afraid of how they will be perceived when they fail. And note that I say “when” they fail, not “if” they fail. 

Because everyone fails. When you start you are terrible and you fail. So you learn and practice and get better and you have the courage to keep trying.

“The courage to keep trying” is the most important part. Because that’s how you get better. That’s how you build skill, ability, intelligence, everything.

This is what everyone doesn’t realise. 

You’re so caught up trying to avoid the “tragedy” that’s failure, you’re bringing another, even bigger tragedy upon yourself. 

Because the real tragedy is not “I failed.”

It is “I never tried.”

Build the courage to try, to take action, regardless of the consequences. If you can do it for long enough, everything else will follow suit.

3. Courage in stance:

One of the hallmarks of success and achievement, is that there are people who stand against you.  There will be those who will laugh, who will ridicule you, say you can’t do it. 

They will call you names when you fail, they will say “I told you so” or “stay in your lane”. But you need to have the courage to stand up against them, and continue your pursuit with unwavering confidence and solidarity. 

The most extraordinary men and women in history have had had people stand against them. Many times their own friends and family, asking them to quit, saying it won’t work. 

Alexander, Mozart, Shakespeare, Madonna, Churchill, Musk, they have all had times when few people believed they could succeed. But all of them had the courage to stand tall and hold their ground. 

You cannot shy away from something just because you’re afraid of haters, or people with opinions. It is society’s job to have opinions. And it’s yours to continue doing what you believe in. 

Living your life and making your decisions in accordance with how other people perceive you is often the worst thing you can do.

This is where courage forms the bedrock of a quality like perseverance. If you don’t have the courage to stand up to haters and non believers, to be the outlier, to stand for what you believe in, then no amount of perseverance will get you to continue. 

How do I build courage?

Here’s a hot tip. In most cases, courage doesn’t mean the absence of fear. We are all afraid. The people who have courage, learn how to face that fear. 

Alexander was afraid of his mortality, Mozart was afraid of the ordinary, Jobs was afraid of being irrelevant. They all faced it.

Start by calling out the biggest fears you have. Name them. Being specific about your fears often alleviates some of it. 

Then learn how to deal with them. 

• Scared of being broke without a roof over your head? 

• Scared of not reaching your parent’s expectations? 

• Scared that you will fail and it won’t work out? 

The good part about doing this is that very often most of our fears are unfound. The worst case isn’t as bad, and can be reversed fairly quickly. 

If you decide to quit your job and start your own thing, what’s the worst that could happen? You fail, it doesn’t work and you learn a million different things. And how long does it take you to find a new job? 6 months? 

So the implications aren’t huge. Then comes how others will perceive you. To that I would say stop caring. Stop before it’s too late. 

You owe it to yourself to attempt to live the greatest life you can. That’s where the adventure of life hits it’s crescendo. Don’t let fear stop you from doing it. 

Build courage. Attempt the impossible. And stand tall. Regardless of how it works out. 

“I know of no greater life purpose, than to perish in attempting the impossible.”

- Friedrich Nietsche

Until next time,

— Khyatt