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Being Bright, Dammit!

September 22, 2004

Are you bright? Did you do well at school? Are you excelling in your career? That's too bad.

The trouble with being bright is that this is what constantly gets reinforced. You win applause, awards, prizes. By the time you get to career-choosing age, it's "obvious" that you should enter a high-status, high-income profession. Why? Because you're bright, and therefore you can.  

Why did Bill Clinton have his affair with Monica? "Just because I could." Why did my client Wayne become a merchant banker? "Just because I could."

The world is full of successful professionals who, in their youth, were so reinforced for their brightness that they lost sight of their other qualities. Take Wayne: his self-image is founded on his powers of logic and analysis. His clients seldom get to glimpse the big heart that is potentially his single greatest strength.

Howard Gardner's model of multiple intelligences can help you break free from an imprisoning self-image. You are more than just bright. You may also have interpersonal intelligence, for example, or intrapersonal, or artistic. It's where your various intelligences combine that your greatest talents reside. 

Last week I watched Roger Federer win the US Tennis Open with an awesome display of grace and power. Anyone who said that his talent is primarily kinesthetic would be missing the point. He is brutally analytical, a sign of strong logical-mathematical intelligence. And he has a serenity to him, an inner mastery, which suggests very high intrapersonal intelligence.

Just as Federer's talents include but transcend his kinesthetic intelligence, so yours include but transcend your brightness. In what ways? That's for you to find out. If you want a good place to start, try Howard Gardner's Creating Minds.