Are you smart enough?

Ajay and Vijay were childhood friends but were opposite in nature. Ajay was straight forward and down to earth whereas Vijay was a manipulator. He knew how to get his work done by playing whatever tactics that came to his mind. Those knowing both of them used to say that they were not worried about Vijay as he was smart and knew how to survive in this cruel world but it would be difficult for Ajay who did not know how to play tactical games.

When they grew up, Ajay, with his sincerity and dedication, completed higher education and got a job in a multinational company. With his straight forward nature, he won confidence of his superiors in no time and got to see many countries in the world. Vijay on the other hand, could not complete his education and set up a small business in his town. With his untrustworthy nature, he lost confidence of people around him and had to struggle for survival. Who will you call smart in this case, Ajay or Vijay?

Dinesh was studious from the beginning. He was absolutely fond of reading books, be it any of his text books or any other book. Some people used to laugh at him. Though he used to score decent numbers in school examination, they used to term his knowledge as bookish with no practical use. “Ask him to bring hardware material and he will go to a medical shop to bring it,” they used to say laughing at him.

Dinesh became an IAS officer and has many servants at his disposal to bring hardware or medical items for him now. Who do you think was smart in this case, Dinesh or people laughing at him?

There is a common impression among people that one who manipulates rules, follows short cuts to succeed is a smart person, whereas one who works hard, shows sincerity in his or her day to day activities is a poor and pitiable character. But what is the reality?

There have been a number of cases of corporate accounting frauds in recent times where auditors had issued clean reports. It was later found out that auditors were also involved in the frauds and they had to serve jail terms, thereby ruining their own careers. These auditors were greatly knowledgeable, experienced professionals; but would you call them smart auditors?

This takes us to the basic question - what is smartness? In practical life, we give it a very narrow and tactical meaning. However, let us look at a few illustrations; a cricket bowler who knows well how to confuse a batsman and take his wicket is a smart player; an accountant who understands meaning of complex accounting standards and makes working to justify accounting done by him, thereby saving a valuable time of his company and the auditors, is definitely a smart accountant, whereas an auditor who can find out a deeply concealed fraud is a smart auditor.

A musician who can compose novel tunes, is a smart musician whereas a singer who can effortlessly sing various tunes and rhythms, is a smart singer. The list can go on and on. What I mean here is that any person who knows to make the best use of his (or her) talent to achieve success, is a smart person.

There is no one-line definition of success, nor is there a uniform parameter of it. What is success for someone, may be a below average performance for another. It depends on from which background you start and what aim you set to achieve.

Again, following short cuts is not wrong or improper in all cases. If they prove to be valid paths in the long run and save time and efforts, they are useful inventions indeed. For e.g., emails have replaced sending physical letters to a great extent; video conferencing has reduced business travelling substantially and so on. These inventions are definitely smart works that have benefited the mankind as a whole.

Each of us has been blessed with certain talent or gift. We have certain dreams in our lives. It is up to us how we use our talents in the best possible manner to fulfill our dreams. There are people who believe that only following the methods they believe can yield success whereas there are also people who believe in out of the box thinking. Such people find out novel ways to reach the destination they want to, never thought about by others.

However, there is a difference between out of the box thinking and manipulative tactics. The former finds a new way of accomplishing a work (or maybe, a dream) that not only paves way to success but also makes a valid choice available to persons who want to pursue a similar target. As against this, the later amounts to following invalid or sometimes unethical ways such as bribing others to get work done, etc. Manipulative tactics can yield immediate success in the short run, but that success may not be sustained in the long run, unless the person adapts himself and uses his core skills also.

History tells us that to achieve anything great, it takes sincerity and relentless work. This is where manipulative tactics miserably fail. Such manipulative people are the ones who have brought notoriety to the word ‘smartness’.

Without a deep interest, Newton would not have invented the law of gravity, nor would Einstein have invented relativity. It is well known that Wright brothers were widely ridiculed before they made their first successful take off from the airplane. This deep diving is what the so called smart people are allergic to.

Thus, it is the time we changed our notion of smartness to also count sincere efforts made in right direction and novel concepts invented by out of the box thinking, but to exclude manipulative and unethical ways that ultimately prove to be self-defeating.