Friday, 27 July 2012

Why EQ is more Important than IQ... Read on.. it can change your life and destiny..


To be prosperous is a very natural and essential requirement of every human being.   Therefore we all want to be successful in life.  A prosperous life means that one has to be successful as a student, as a professional and also as an individual.  Success besides materialistic achievement also means self esteem, satisfaction and general well being. The opportunities, available to you today are fortunately much more than what were available to young people about twenty years ago.

For example to pursue your further studies you have a large number of options. To choose a profession, apart from becoming an engineer, a doctor, a bureaucrat or a chartered accountant today one can opt for Mass Communication, Business management, fashion designing, Hospitality sector, Telecom Management to name a few.  Therefore in due course of time some of you will become IT professionals, singers, actors, models, painters, doctors, commercial pilots, entrepreneurs or consultants. Your other class fellows may pick up some very different professions, which you may not be able to even think of today.  This is possible because today things are changing at a very fast pace and more and more number of avenues are opening up.

To be successful in any of these areas you have to be good at that field.  These areas are going to be your domains where you will be working.  Therefore it is essential to have a good domain knowledge or domain expertise.  For that you should have a sound basic educational foundation.  This is given to you by your schools and colleges.  But do you think domain knowledge or expertise is enough to be successful?  Just think about this.

If I ask you the secret of success of Amitabh Bacchan, then what would be your answer?  Is it only his talent as an actor that has taken him to the number one position in the film Industry for the second time?  Or is there anything else that he posses which sets him apart from other film stars? The answer would be yes.  He has been so successful not only because he is a great actor but also because he has that will power to fight against failure, to work hard consistently at this age and his excellent relations with his co stars and film directors. Above all his humble approach in dealing with people has made him a likeable person.

In a similar way Sachin Tendulkar is a great batsman because besides being a gifted cricketer he is extremely hard working, meticulous and can play under tremendous pressure.  Therefore acquiring domain knowledge alone will not be enough for success.  You need to develop these other worldly skills possed by the most successful people.  Today it has been well proven that great people like JRD Tata, Narayan Murthy or Azim Premji were successful not so much because

of their domain knowledge but because of the qualities like, strong will power, love for their Job, ability to handle failure to name a few.  These people also had a firm belief in values like honesty, integrity and caring for others and the society.

Let us look at how over a period of time we as a society and as individuals developed our skills. During the beginning of the last century the progress of the society was dependant on inventions and discoveries like steam engine, electricity or the penicillin for example.  All these were the gifts of science and therefore study of science as a subject became very important for our progress.  Because of this a lot of importance was being given to science and technology.  That is how the concept of IQ (Intelligence Quotient) to test human ability came into being.   It was designed to assess the logical reasoning part of our abilities. 

Besides the logical reasoning god has given us some other abilities like acting, singing, or playing a game like football.  These are the gifts given to us by god.  Many people like AR Rehman, Lata Mangeshkar, Saurav Ganguly  have used these abilities to make a very successful and satisfying life.   Besides the IQ and the gifted abilities there is one more very important ingredient for success and that is values and emotional intelligence.  Values like commitment, honesty and caring for others are therefore as essential for success as IQ.  Emotional Intelligence is a set of those abilities which make us perform in any field better than the best.  Handling a set back, self esteem, ethical behaviour, being mentally strong are some of the abilities which form a part of Emotional Intelligence.  Unfortunately an IQ test does not cover these abilities at all.  Handling a crisis or getting along with friends has nothing to do with your IQ at all.  Nor are these related to your ability to become a singer or play football.   A lot of research has been done which proves that all great and successful people, like great singers, doctors, corporate heads, scientists and people from every walk of life have been successful because they believed in values and were having a high emotional intelligence. Therefore what ever field of profession you choose, these qualities will be essential for your success.  As you  read this book you will realize that this is the absolute truth.         
 
These are those worldly abilities without which success is not possible. For example you may be very good at mathematics and have a high IQ but if you do not seriously and meticulously prepare, you can never get through a competitive examination. Similarly you may be good at playing cricket, but if you do not practice six hours a day on the cricket pitch, have passion to play and do not go to the gym regularly to tone up your muscles, you cannot become Sachin Tendulkar.

Therefore these values and emotional intelligence become essential for success. Another important point to be understood is that the logical reasoning and IQ are
a matter of head where as emotional intelligence and value based success is from the heart.
For example, you would easily realize that passion for acting is from the heart and not the head. Similarly patriotism, charity and even self esteem are from your heart and not the head. Also remember that you would like to make friends with those people who are dependable, whom you can trust and who are good kind hearted people. If this is what you want from others, then. I am sure others would also like to see these qualities in you.

Another important thing for success is to have a role model. Role model is someone you look up to or someone you want to emulate or be like. A role model need not be only a very famous person like Abraham Lincoln, or Dhirubhai Ambani. It could be anyone whom you respect for his or her qualities. I know many young people who find their role models in their father or elder brother or even someone staying in the neighborhood. You can have multiple role models also. You may choose your father as a role model because he is down right honest and very hard working. At the same time you may admire Amitabh Bacchan for his dedication and ability to take set backs in life. So you could have two role models. And one day you may notice that your uncle has a pleasing personality and a great sense of humour, which could make for your third role model. Such role models become a great source of inspiration for all of us. And they remain a source of motivation and to some extent guiding spirit throughout our lives.

Now if you admire these people for these qualities than I am sure your friends will admire you if you imbibe and demonstrate these same very qualities! Just imagine, you can also become a role model for others if you acquire these simple abilities covered by emotional intelligence and value based living. Through these lessons we are going to learn some very important human abilities which I have briefly explained till now. Whatever you choose to do in the future, these abilities will take you to those heights of success which you can never ever imagine.

To get the maximum out of this you must participate in all discussions, group activities and also answer honestly the self assessment questions given at the end of each important value or quality.  Analyse your weak areas and then work on then so that you can improve in each and every quality.   God has given each one of us enough strength and intelligence so that we can make a change, a positive change to our personality.  The first step to make a change is to accept that you have certain qualities which you need to improve upon.  Then it becomes much easier to change.  Even if you make a little change in each area it will make a big change in your life.

“It is difficult to change 100% in one area but it is easy to change 1% in hundred areas”



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