Smart - That Has Less and Less to Do with Your Success and Ours

 Evidence that once-hot media platform BusinessInsider has lost traction is this: It has a column "Smart People Say." Incidentally, in the past three years BI has lost 27% of paid subscribers. I am there, but only as a freeloader.

One of the Everyone-Knows is that smart per se carries less and less weight in getting, holding and moving on to better earning opportunities.  You have to be smart to be admitted to Harvard Business School and make it through, right. Yet almost a fourth of those recent MBAs didn't land jobs three months after graduation. About 43% of baristas have college degrees. If you're over 50, as ProPublica documents, smart won't save you from being forced out.

Another Everyone-Knows is what really counts is access to insider intel (the legal kind). 

For decades since I had worked for Big Oil, I follow Ed Yardeni. He may or may not be smart. The stickiness comes from his ability to source information about global energy, then connect the dots. 

On prediction markets those who have down cold a niche - be it politics or soccer or business - can become wealthy. No, you can't just be smart in a general way.

The edge Paul, Weiss partner Brad Karp had was not the smarts that made him an honors graduate of Harvard Law School. It was that he was a third-generation lawyer. His parents and grandfather were all lawyers. He had internalized not only the technical aspects of law but, more importantly, the dynamics of success. Research shows first-generation lawyers are at a disadvantage. That's despite that they might be wicked smart.

A Third Everyone-knows is that interviewers are often turned off by a display of smarts. Not only could that be irrelevant to doing a particular task.  They're concerned that you could intend to take over the place and not be able to be supervised. What they look for is the applicant who, it seems, can get the job done better, more affordably and faster than the others competing for a job. The ladder is gone. When they hire the AI Prompt Engineer it's for that role, not a future one as vice president of sales. 

Actually, often it's smart to act dumb. Sure, have that company down cold. But withhold your brilliant suggestions for improvement. On Blind, for instance, there had been a growing number of posts of those sidelined after proposing restructuring processes. That's not seen as initiative. Instead, it's interpreted as not understanding how the management operates at that moment. Recall the platitude: Timing is everything.

In my coaching I hammer worming your way inside the scene, the particular organization and all the relevant units. That's sourcing intel. By time - again time - the information and insight are published in business media, the peak opportunity might have passed. Networking is not so much about the contacts. It's about having made the contacts you have the intel needed. And you're in solid, sourcing more and more intel. 

Careers? So Over. It’s about Earning a Good Living. No matter what.

Complimentary consultation. No Pressure. Street-smart Guidance. Contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.


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