How Smart Do You Have to Be to Succeed?

Weightlifting: Assuming you've met some minimum threshold and are doing reasonably effective exercises (like these) with reasonably effective form, the details don't really matter that much. Once you've passed this basic threshold, what makes 95% of the difference is this: Are you showing up to the gym and putting in your reps?

To summarize, the study started with the smartest group of children in the entire state of California and then tracked their success throughout their entire lives. Decades later, the researchers had discovered something very interesting.

But nearly every lineman in the NFL is over 300 pounds. There is a threshold that you have to cross to get the job. After that, it's anyone's guess as to who will be the best. We can think of intelligence in a similar fashion.

The surprising discovery that came out of Terman's study is best described by creativity researcher and physician, Nancy Andreasen as Threshold Theory…

How smart do you have to be to succeed? How intelligent do you need to be to become a successful entrepreneur? How good does your training program need to be to become an elite athlete? How perfect does your weight loss program need to be to burn fat?

In 1921, there was a psychologist at Stanford University named Lewis Terman who set out on a mission to conduct a research study unlike any before it.

Threshold Theory in Everyday Life

Entrepreneurship: Assuming you know what the most important metric is for your business, what makes the biggest difference is focusing on that metric every day. Once you cross the basic threshold of knowing what to work on, the most important thing is continuing to work on that one thing and not something else.

Threshold Theory