we all have things that come more easily than others. mine have always been and continue to be, making friends, trying new things, accepting change, a strong work ethic, and passion in my pursuits. in the past, i often discounted such qualities considerably in comparison to the value and importance i assumed gifted intelligence & superior natural aptitude would play in real life. real life of course being corporate america. you know, where it all matters.

i’m going to save you the suspense here, it’s safe to say that i am not a genius. it was never in the cards for me to be a famous string theorist. i’ve never been one of those kids that just “gets it”. i’ve wanted to be; i always seem to end up being best friends with those kids; hell, i’m dating one right now. but alas, my “A’s” have always been earned only after hour upon hour locked in the library stacks. i’ve never, ever, been rewarded for an achievement in school or post-education without feeling like i poured my heart and every ounce of effort i could muster into said accomplishment. for a very long while, i saw this whole situation as a shortcoming. in fact, i developed severe anxiety over grades and educational success. there was a not-so-brief period from 2006-2008 where i became physically ill the morning of every single exam. my obsession with grades and academic achievements manifested itself physically and truly altered my self-confidence. i was convinced that i was going to be unsuccessful post-graduation, doomed to a boring sub-par life of mediocrity.

it didn’t help that i went to the University of Michigan, where they just love bell curves. that i was majoring in Economics which though i love it is basically a major of trickery and mathematic nonsense. or that i was surrounded by overly confident and audibly gifted classmates. so while college was an incredible experience, for obvious reasons outside of test taking and studying, i certainly didn’t walk away with the life altering, real world, go-getter confidence i always thought my young adult self would be armed with upon graduation.

during senior year after landing a job in finance, the worrisome conversations and anxiety over success sky-rocketed. one would think they would decline. but no, because now i made the stakes even higher, i had something to prove. my father’s continued and undeniable self-made success at one of the largest corporations in the world has been a model of what one person can achieve with dedication and perseverance amongst limited resources. he’s always been my career hero. from childhood i’ve watched him achieve his career dreams. with this, the bar for my idea of personal achievement raised higher and higher each year. landing a job and graduating college meant it was now my turn, the switch to the real world was being flipped on. like, forever.

you can imagine that this of course resulted in ever-frequent conversations with my father where time and again, i would worry excessively and he would calm me down, repeating “you’ll do great, kid. you’ve got nothing to worry about”. my parents reminded me that i was armed with some qualities that the math wizards might not possess. (remember those guys from up top?) that although i wasn’t walking away from school with a 4.0, i had gained something equally valuable that only i could teach myself–work ethic. and an ace one at that.

and you know what? just like parents always are, they were right. four years later, i’m at that same financial firm. i feel confident, armed, and skilled at my work. from the very start, i have felt valued for my personality, critical thinking, and work ethic. special for those things i bring to the table that make me a passionate team member and leader, a motivated employee. i would have never told anyone i was a gifted student, but i’ll tell you for certain that i’m a damned valuable employee. why? because i work my tail off and because i care deeply. i care about getting it right and doing it right. you can’t teach work ethic and it certainly isn’t a given with natural intelligence.

absolutely, there are days when the conversation in the room goes above my head (hello tuesday’s 1pm meeting) and that’s okay, because fulfillment in one’s career requires challenge, i need to learn. a good work setting promotes education and fosters development without bell curves and anxiety.

in a way that college never did, my career has armed me with confidence, with a belief in myself charged by faith in my strengths. strengths that i now know the meaning of.

sometimes, intelligence is overrated, yo.