People with an IQ of 160 or more are in the 99.96 percentile. This means that there are 0.04% of the human population who score as well or better on IQ tests. If the world has about 8 billion people, then 0.04% x 8,000,000,000 = 3,200,000 people in the world have an IQ of 160 or more.
Then why are there so few people like Albert Einstein and Elon Musk? There are several reasons:
• many people of high IQ live in regions where there is no access to higher education and the opportunity to develop there gifts.
• many people of high IQ are not motivated to dedicate themselves to the pursuit of highly abstract theories in physics or to entrepreneurial ventures.
• many people of high IQ do not have the tenacity to persist through difficulties to achieve at the highest levels. They may be motivated to achieve success but lack the staying power when things go wrong. As Thomas Edison once observed, “Most people quit before they would have become successful.”
• An old adages states, “Success is what happens when readiness meets opportunity.” Sometimes, highly intelligent people are ready to produce, but the right opportunity never seems to present itself. People call this the “luck factor.”
To become an icon like Einstein or Musk, your brilliance must occur at a time when the world is ready for what you have to offer. Author Thomas Gary in his poem, “Elegy in a Country Churchyard,” lamenting the unsung heroes of past generations, wrote:
Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flow’r is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
Only a few brilliant minds have the motivation, tenacity, education and opportunity to reach the lofty levels of an Einstein or a Musk, but those who do reach the top echelons bring us wonderful gifts.
