Emotional IQ vs booksmart IQ

“Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.” Salvador Dali

I have always been a supporter of being street smart, or “hustle”, versus a person who knows what the book says. In life, I feel, so many times our specific situations are not found in books, and that is what makes life dynamic.

I am not an expert, in no way, to being a street smart person. I just know, that I have to do things that maybe not many people have done. Or, at least, not in the same specific situation that I am in – which is definitely more common. For example, my passport, and my visa. It depends on what job you have, your business, where you are from. And the rules change! You cannot be a booksmart person that isn’t going to go out and ask around, talk to people in similar situations. You have to make it work. Just push it through.

I was chatting to my buddy Scott Katin, and he is always a philosophical guy that puts things in perspective. He makes it seem I am always fighting, but if I keep swinging punches but don’t put my head up to look where I’m punching and what I’m hitting, what is the purpose. Sure, we all need to look where we are fighting, and which direction we are pushing. But that is just my personality and I cannot fight the fact that I want to fight all the time. With me, or against me.

I did fairly well in my book studies. I do, though, remember resisting learning classes or subjects I did not feel I needed. Chemistry was always one of them, I was told I had to memorize the periodic table of elements in high school, i raised my hand and simply said “why”? Teacher didn’t like that much….and from the first day onwards it was a battle. But she took me after class and asked me why I am being difficult, I said its because I do not want to use my time and energy learning something I do not plan to use in the future.

She asked me, what do you want to do when you grow up. I said “business”, and she said I will use Chemistry in business, I can’t remember the example. But my response was that no, I would not use chemistry in business. It went like that all semester, and I applied myself just enough to get a passing grade. I offset that grade with other classes that I was interested in and my overall GPA that semester was still decent.

So, I ask you, does a GPA or a grade in a class affect real life business and situations? Maybe I was a bit of a punk kid in that class, but I told my teacher, focus on the other students who want to learn chemistry, don’t focus on me.

Push forward, learn where necessary, and adapt to the environment.