Love Beats Smarts.

Just because you’re smart doesn’t mean that you can be successful.

Even with a laser focus on continuous education, you can’t “out think” your way to being amazing.

Even if you’re putting in the effort.

Brains aren’t enough.

Neither is mind-blowing amounts of ridiculously obsessive attention to detail. You can rule out discipline too — even though it contributes wildly to consistently successful outcomes.

Not effort. Not discipline. Not extreme behavior.

It takes something more.

It takes love.

You have to learn how to connect emotionally with other people.

This isn’t the squishy, gooey Valentines Day soap opera kind of love that might have just popped into the front of your mind. It doesn’t involve chocolates, cut flowers, or sexy massage oils.

It’s the concept of emotional intelligence.

“It’s a sympathetic awareness framed by a deep understanding of what really moves people to do what they do.”

It’s an awareness that doesn’t expect rational behavior. It anticipates the ill-logic of deeply personal nuance.

It goes beyond books and degrees.

And lest you shrug it off as just the whimsical weakness of under-producing “has-beens”, you might want to take a closer look.

Emotional intelligence, this “working love”, is what empowered Steve Jobs to create a passionate following for his technology offerings.

In the face of a ubiquitous and dominant Microsoft business-scape, Jobs elevated the conversation around beauty and design. He advocated a focus on user experience as more important than overwhelming functionality.

And the message connected wildly with consumers who felt empowered by technology that looked good and acted smooth.

That emotional connection fueled a 9000% increase in Apple’s market value –a period in which Microsoft only increased in value a little over 5% and Intel rose only 14%.

It was love over smarts.

The same formula that created the most valuable company in the world can empower you as well.

It really comes down to three things that you need to understand:

1. Understand how our brains make decisions — This whole concept of loving others falls apart pretty darn quickly if you don’t know how your brain computes information.  You are wired to be emotional — not logical.  Education doesn’t change that.  The same   irrational behavior you find inexcusable in others is the default wiring for your decision making.  It’s just foolish to assume otherwise.
2. Understand how fear and pain drive our activities – You aren’t wired to be good at combatting fear and failure.  Even the smallest hint of an uncomfortable or painful situation can push your entire nervous system into overdrive.  You’re wired to run from anything that looks scary.  Knowing that can help you connect with what others are going through.
3. Understand the power of love to rejuvenate relationships — What inspires you more powerfully than other force on earth is love. That’s not hype. It’s evidenced at the laboratory level.  Empathy quite literally creates new brain matter.  When you love others it rehabilitates them  – enables them to chose your solution.

In our social environment of niche knowledge, it might seem like another webinar or online course is the answer to fixing the problems that get in the way of our success.

And while knowing more is a powerful enabler for doing more, it’s still not enough.

You have to love more.

Love beats smarts.