Not Smart? That’s not a problem at all …
My time is short and so is yours, so why not tell the truth: A person can get along very well in life without one bit of the mathematics and physics they rammed into our brains in high school. Fifty years later, and there hasn’t been a single moment when I ‘ve thought, “Oh if only I could remember higher algebra!” We Midwesterners have a charm deficit from day one and never catch up. We prairie dogs are solemn and cold and people do not gravitate toward us and I, having been brought up fundamentalist, am a colder fish than most.
It isn’t smarts, it’s personal charm that propels you forward in this world. And I admit that I have often hired people because they were pleasant and smiled and were fun to be with. I used to hire brilliant troubled people, but I don’t anymore. They are usually more troubled than brilliant. A terrific smile will take you a long way in this world. If Barack Obama had grown up fundamentalist in Minnesota (no offense intended), he would not be the leader of the free world.
If your kid flunked out of school, don’t worry about it. Teach him to love his life.
