I have been drawing people’s attention to the importance of mental health lately. Recently I posted the following on my Facebook wall, “I really think we must be awakened more to issues of MENTAL HEALTH. It is heavily misunderstood and heavily ignored”. There are so many areas to explore regarding that area. In this article, I want to look at some of the building blocks that have a bearing on mental health issues. These are areas I feel every entrepreneur should be cognizant of such that they work on them. Primarily they have to understand what they mean and what they imply. That is why I am discussing them in this article.
Definitions
Intelligence Quotient – IQ
This measures one’s ability to understand, solve mathematical problems, information retention, and recalling things. The higher it is the more intelligent you are. People considered geniuses score high when it comes to IQ. For instance, Albert Einstein had an IQ of around 170. Recently I saw a video of a certain man in the USA who has an IQ of 200. Different types of IQ tests are used. In developed nations, it seems IQ tests are a big deal whereas this side, not so much or at all.
Emotional Quotient – IQ
This measures one’s ability to keep their emotions in perfect check and balance despite the circumstances. This means someone peaceful in his or her dealings spanning from self to interaction with others has a high EQ. It deals with attributes such as empathy, humility, integrity, authenticity, and so on.
Social Quotient – SQ
This looks at one’s ability to build, cultivate, and maintain healthy social interactions with various people. The social strata can span from family to friends, colleagues, strangers, and the like. How well one manages those social interactions tells us about how they measure up regarding SQ.
Adversity Quotient
This measures one’s ability to encounter adverse circumstances and still emerge triumphantly. Most people carve in when they go through adversity and can even develop serious health complications. Someone with a high AQ can face any circumstances and deal with them like a boss.
Implications
Pay Attention To All 4
Often entrepreneurs focus mainly on the IQ side. They think going to school or studying something and mastering a particular subject is all there is to it in business. Ironically, it is not the case. Recently I saw a discussion on social media where someone has asked why most brilliant students in school never make it in life. So many reasons were cited by this subject I am dealing with is also the answer. They probably would have focused most on the IQ at the expense of other quotients. This is true in academia and life as it is too in entrepreneurship. All 4 areas need to be perfectly balanced to bring out the consummate entrepreneur.
An Institutionalized Problem Perhaps…
The heightened focus on IQ at the expense of the other quotients is deeply engrained in the Zimbabwean society. I believe it even starts from the family unit where parents or guardians do not coach their kids on EQ, SQ, and AQ. Often they themselves never got training on those and are even oblivious of their existence. However, there is a need for a paradigm shift into a new norm where all 4 are given rapt attention. Even in schools, the sole focus is on grades (IQ) more than anything else. This has to be redressed.
The Quitters…
If your AQ is low you are most likely wired to give up easily. Once adversity strikes you will waste no time in throwing in the towel. Every entrepreneur must work on their AQ – it is imperative. This is because the field of entrepreneurship is characterised by constant change and high risk. Those two metrics put together you can be sure things will go south more than once. Thus having a weak or low AQ will get you nowhere in business.
High IQ Alone Does Not Cut It
High IQ more often than not ends you up being an employee. Your employer, in most cases, will be someone with high EQ and high SQ yet poor or average IQ. This ends up causing people to mock the efficacy of academic pursuits.
At the end of the day, you realize that EQ, SQ, and AQ are way more crucially important than IQ. If you can cultivate and enhance all 4 that will be great but EQ, SQ, and AQ are indispensably important. This in no way downplays IQ but the reality is one can become a successful entrepreneur with poor or average IQ.
