{"id":3966,"date":"2015-04-29T10:10:10","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T06:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/?p=3966"},"modified":"2015-05-01T11:29:51","modified_gmt":"2015-05-01T07:29:51","slug":"10-behaviors-of-smart-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/10-behaviors-of-smart-people\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Behaviors of Smart People"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image source: Paramount Pictures<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u201cStupid is as stupid does.\u201d The great irony of Forrest Gump was how insightful his simplistic sayings really were. In case you don\u2019t know, Gump\u2019s line means you are what you do. In other words, it doesn\u2019t matter how intelligent you think you are or are supposed to be, if you consistently do dumb things, you\u2019re still dumb.<\/p>\n

Smarts are ridiculously important and we\u2019ll tell you why. Smart people make smart decisions and that\u2019s the most important factor in how things turn out for you.<\/p>\n

One of the smartest choices you\u2019ll ever make is to seek out smart people in your work relationships. Just to be clear, we don\u2019t mean those who think they\u2019re smart but do dumb things. We mean the real deal. Since people don\u2019t have smart meters built into their foreheads, here\u2019s how to tell if someone\u2019s smart, starting with the obvious:<\/p>\n

They make smart decisions.<\/b><\/p>\n

Smart people know their actions have consequences. They also know that they have to earn business results one decision at a time. In other words, a few smart calls won\u2019t make you omnipotent. Consistently making good decisions takes discipline and focus.<\/p>\n

They learn from their mistakes.<\/b><\/p>\n

From our first steps to our last, we learn everything in life by trial and error. We all make mistakes because that\u2019s how we learn. Smart people learn from theirs. After all, if you don\u2019t face reality and judge yourself honestly, you\u2019ll never do better next time.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t have all the answers.<\/b><\/p>\n

There\u2019s an old saying, \u201cThose of you who think you know everything are annoying to those of us who do.\u201d It\u2019s a funny line but if you say it in earnest, that\u2019s pretty annoying. Smart people don\u2019t need to constantly reinforce the fact by acting like know-it-alls. They\u2019re smart enough to know how much they don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

They surround themselves with smart people.<\/b><\/p>\n

No man is an island. Individuals may be smart but small teams do the best work. Steve Jobs may have been a control freak, but he made sure the eight or nine people on his leadership team were the most talented he could find and taught them to do the same with their teams. That\u2019s smart.<\/p>\n

They are resourceful.<\/b><\/p>\n

Since human intelligence is an evolutionary advantage — we didn\u2019t evolve an enormous neocortex for no reason \u2013 intelligent people are generally more adaptable and creative in the way they make use of their surroundings to achieve results.<\/p>\n

They can reason.<\/b><\/p>\n

Even when presented with irrefutable evidence that they\u2019re wrong, many people will consistently hold their ground as if their life depended on it. Without critical thinking, logical reasoning, causality, and the scientific method, we\u2019d still be living in the dark ages.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t follow fads.<\/b><\/p>\n

We live in the golden age of fads and pseudoscience. Frankly, nothing speaks louder to the dumbing down of society that was portrayed so accurately in Mike Judge\u2019s futuristic spoof Idiocracy<\/i>. Urban Dictionary calls it a “movie that was originally a comedy, but became a documentary.\u201d Truth.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t live beyond their means.<\/b><\/p>\n

We all stretch ourselves somewhat when we\u2019re young. But once you\u2019ve achieved something you don\u2019t want to lose, it\u2019s not very bright to squander it needlessly by living beyond your means.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re often their own worst enemy.<\/b><\/p>\n

As developed as our frontal lobes are, everyone has at least one emotional blind spot that haunts them. Oftentimes that\u2019s just the flipside of whatever it is that makes them smart to begin with. Like yin and yang, they need each other to coexist.<\/p>\n

As entrepreneurs, they\u2019re not always successful.<\/b><\/p>\n

When it comes to business success, intelligence is necessary but not sufficient. We\u2019re not talking about shysters who sucker people or someone who made a fortune off a single smart trade. To found and run a successful business over the long haul, you\u2019ve got to be smart. Period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  \u201cStupid is as stupid does.\u201d The great irony of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[72,1591,542,182,216,335],"class_list":["post-3966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-profesionalnews","tag-72","tag-april-2015","tag-behavior","tag-english-book-in-georgia","tag-for-professionals","tag-tips-for-professionals","cat_33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3966"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3968,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3966\/revisions\/3968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}