At the rate people of ambivalent emotions grapple with life and living today, it can actually be extremely difficult to connect whether a high intelligence quotient (IQ) will automatically make people succeed and those with modest IQ will necessarily fail.
In a recent study published into a scientific article by Michael Akers and Grover Porter, certain factors are at play why sometimes, people of high IQ fail and those of modest IQ succeed. “How well you do in your life and career is determined by both IQ and EQ. IQ alone is not enough, EQ also matters,” informed Akers and Porter. In fact, the article continued, psychologists generally contend that “among the ingredients of success, IQ counts for roughly 10 percent (at best 25 percent); the rest depends on everything else, including EQ.”
In an additional study done on Harvard graduates of business, law, medicine, and education, Akers and Porter found a negative or zero correlation between an IQ indicator based on entrance exam scores and whether the graduates have been successful in their careers.
The two authors further interviewed individuals who concluded that EQ is more important than one’s IQ in attaining success in their lives and careers. “As individuals, our success and the success of the profession today depend on our ability to read other people’s signals and react appropriately to them,” explained Akers and Porter of this phenomenon.
The study advised those who would want to become successful to likewise develop mature EQ skills required to “better understand, empathize, and negotiate with other people, particularly as the economy has become more global.” Otherwise, the study continued, success will certainly elude people in their career as well as in their personal lives.
Howard Gardner, an influential educational theorist from Harvard, was made as a reference when he intoned: “Your EQ is the level of your ability to understand other people, what motivates them, and how to work cooperatively with them.
The researchers collectively identified five major categories of EQ skills which can be developed hand in hand with one’s IQ for one to succeed in any endeavor. These are: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.
“If you are able to develop those skills pertaining to how you handle your emotions both at home and in the workplace, then it would be easier to adjust your mental aptitude because you are an emotionally healthy individual,” expressed Akers and Porter.
The Magnitude 6.9 earthquake that rocked northern Cebu and other neighboring provinces last Tuesday, Sept. 30, should be a test of faith and courage, redounding to whether you are able to cope because of your EQ, not necessarily your IQ. Hopelessness and helplessness are desperate moments which, more often, calls for desperate moves, but many times God in His infinite wisdom provides for a way out of malaise and despair.
A combination of EQ and IQ is felt more than ever today as the citizenry has become exasperated with such brazen and blatant corruption among government and elected officials. Although we have to admit that corruption is nothing new to us, it should not become a way of life for some select few. Poverty is still rampant and if there were economic gains made in the past, they have neither fulfilled their potentials nor proved to be sustainable.
Distribution of opportunities, but rather allocated opportunities, was done only to a selected few. Despite continued and persistent promises by politicians and despite elections coming and going, the rich become richer and the poor became poorer.
Looking back after the country gained its independence on June 12, 1898, not all is lost and we would like to believe that good things are yet to come. Power is essential, but it should not be absolute. Power needs unity among the populace coupled with dealing with reality. Only then can progress be achieved in the nation. | NWI
