where is the yardstick ?
So here I sit, wondering the answers to one of life’s eternal questions. I spend allot of time in my life wondering how intelligence is judged. I as some of my friends know am not a very well educated person. I only have an 11th grade education. I dropped out of school in my senior year never completing it. I see many people around me who have gone on to get the nicely printed and framed piece of paper. And more than most of them have multiple nicely printed and framed pieces of paper. now I have always seen myself as a little dumb . not in the respect that I have no sense what so ever, but I don’t at all see myself like a well educated individual . I have friends right now who either are in school or have recently graduated and I see them as intelligent. But I see them without jobs or lost in the world looking for their place . I on the other hand had no place to look for I left school and knew I had to work I went out and found jobs that paid the bills. As I went along I did whatever came along I had no “talent” or true skills for the work a day world so I just did what I could and I did ok . One day I came to a realization. I was not going to ever be the guy who had the house car wife and the 2.5 kids I was just going to be that guy who didn’t have a career as much as just a job. And I was far from un happy but the jobs I was doing weren’t the highest paying or the bet way for me to show who I was or who I could be. I remember sitting in my apartment after a particularly bad stretch of the road of life. My girlfriend had just left me. I had just lost the job that she thought I was the most suited for. Well I sat there thinking I like cars and I am always tinkering and building cars why not make it a career well in my mind it was a path to that home the wife and the 2.5.
So I start a business I jump in with all the energy I had left and I became one of the millions of poor small business owners in the USA fighting for the American dream. I took all the money I didn’t have and put it to getting a place and a life. I still can remember saying to my mother “I have to make this work “”I’ve got nothing left I’ve failed at everything else “”ill never own a home without building a business” well as it turns out that is the worst way to do what I wanted. Not just is it the worst way I now know that 90% of all small business owners loose their homes and never are able to get one again if they do loose it. Since owning a small business is the quickest route to bankruptcy. It is true that the only real way to make the true profit in owning a business is to sell it now don’t get me wrong I know I have done very well, but I have only done very well because I have been too stubborn to give up. For some reason I still hold the candle that im going to make a pile of money and I will be rich but this is the e15th year I have been doing this. Now I am wondering if I have beaten this horse long enough.
So it’s now November 2008 and I have done it again I went and rented a shop that is larger and is way more than I can afford right now. Well I have a dream I see that even though many people are out of work and aren’t spending money I know there is work and money available out there to be made. so the question comes will I be the one to survive a major economic crunch? All of these questions still have not answered my questions.
Am I smart? I have friends who are and I know this because they either have the nicely printed paper or are on their way to getting it. So for someone like me who doesn’t have the paper is it a mater of those online IQ tests or is it more about what you do and what you learn out here in the no book world. As I am writing this I have just finished my daily ritual of watching a few lectures on www.ted.com now I see the people on there as very intelligent. But just because I watch and learn from what they discuss but no mater how many times I do get something from them I still don’t see how I am smart for being the one to watch them. No matter how many I watch I will never get a degree for learning what they are teaching (saying)
OK HERE IT IS. I have now written about a small subject that is on my mind more a ramble than concise speech. What I want to know is how any one who is reading this feels about what they think is true intelligence (what is smart)?
So I start a business I jump in with all the energy I had left and I became one of the millions of poor small business owners in the USA fighting for the American dream. I took all the money I didn’t have and put it to getting a place and a life. I still can remember saying to my mother “I have to make this work “”I’ve got nothing left I’ve failed at everything else “”ill never own a home without building a business” well as it turns out that is the worst way to do what I wanted. Not just is it the worst way I now know that 90% of all small business owners loose their homes and never are able to get one again if they do loose it. Since owning a small business is the quickest route to bankruptcy. It is true that the only real way to make the true profit in owning a business is to sell it now don’t get me wrong I know I have done very well, but I have only done very well because I have been too stubborn to give up. For some reason I still hold the candle that im going to make a pile of money and I will be rich but this is the e15th year I have been doing this. Now I am wondering if I have beaten this horse long enough.
So it’s now November 2008 and I have done it again I went and rented a shop that is larger and is way more than I can afford right now. Well I have a dream I see that even though many people are out of work and aren’t spending money I know there is work and money available out there to be made. so the question comes will I be the one to survive a major economic crunch? All of these questions still have not answered my questions.
Am I smart? I have friends who are and I know this because they either have the nicely printed paper or are on their way to getting it. So for someone like me who doesn’t have the paper is it a mater of those online IQ tests or is it more about what you do and what you learn out here in the no book world. As I am writing this I have just finished my daily ritual of watching a few lectures on www.ted.com now I see the people on there as very intelligent. But just because I watch and learn from what they discuss but no mater how many times I do get something from them I still don’t see how I am smart for being the one to watch them. No matter how many I watch I will never get a degree for learning what they are teaching (saying)
OK HERE IT IS. I have now written about a small subject that is on my mind more a ramble than concise speech. What I want to know is how any one who is reading this feels about what they think is true intelligence (what is smart)?