How to Be an Intelligent Person and Why It’s Important

Almost everyone says that intelligent people are the brainiacs who come up with the ridiculously crazy math formulas and prove why LaGrange Multipliers are the best for showing off “I’m smart, haha, eat that suckers!”

Or they might say that everyone who is smart and intelligent are those that can prove that Lenz’s Law works the world’s magic and that because they know it, they’re entitled to all of the attention at the bar.

Or everyone will say that “You got 5 Ph.D’s? You’re rich!”

Well, maybe in some cases that could be true, but in the vast majority of cases, that isn’t true.

These guys are for the most part attention seeking braggers that have the world’s most insecurity.

They’re not intelligent.

They’re consumers and not producers.

And that isn’t intelligent at all.

Teddy Roosevelt said it extremely well, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

And that is the sign of an intelligent person and in this blog post, you’ll learn how to be an intelligent person and why it matters.

You see, we live in a society full of people who love to brag about their stuff and who LOVE to show off the newest designer labels and post that stuff on Instagram to their friends and make it known to the world that they got that new Gucci even though they can’t afford it to show off to their friends and followers that, in their minds, they rock, but they don’t. Well here’s the truth, if you do that, you don’t rock. You’re in the luxury trap and you need a big wake up call to fix it starting now.

Intelligent people don’t like to show off this type of stuff. We tend to create the stuff that the masses consume and promote themselves and effectively promoting us and making us richer.

Now you might be asking “Well gee Evan, aren’t you rich?”

Well, no I’m not, but I’m gonna be. And I mean super rich. And an unwavering commitment to be great and to amass massive wealth for myself and for my islanders.

And that validates what this 20 year old has to say.

I don’t care what people say that I’m an unaccredited this or that or what have you, but I’m making Join the Island great and there is nothing that will stop me.

And that brings me up to the first principle of an intelligent person.

Be an Independent Thinker

Everyone always says that to fit in, you must do what the authorities told you to do.

You must follow the rules, do what everyone else is doing, and that you can’t succeed without following those rules.

The result if you don’t think it through carefully: disaster.

Why?

Because you have no say in the matter.

You see, intelligent people don’t just go with what the crowd is doing.

We analyze the situation at hand and determine if it’s the correct decision for us.

Now, could the crowd be correct in some matters?

Yes, but in a lot of cases, no they’re not.

And that’s where the intelligent person comes in.

We identify what the crowd is missing that we could capitalize on, or we find a massive demand as to what they want and we provide it to them somehow.

For instance, let’s say that when you are looking into how to spend your time one evening, you look at two options: going out with your friends or working on your side hustle.

The option of working on the side hustle has the opportunity to make a sale and earn you more money so that you can pay for your rent or invest it in something, while the other option might leave you with a few rounds of enjoyment, but you will missing out on a potential sale and you will have less time on your hands.

The intelligent person thinks it through like this, “Is it worth it for me to give up some amount of dollars in potential revenue now and revenue in the future along with the opportunity to pay for my living expenses to have a few drinks with friends? Because if I go out, I will lose that money and that time!”

In other words, is selling my time worth more than buying time in the future?

That’s the question that you should be asking yourself if this is an issue for you or you haven’t thought about this before.

Money is a tool to purchase time and to purchase more money.

Money wasted on a few drinks will leave you with some fun, but less resources afterwards. And if you keep doing that, you’ll essentially be playing slots at the casino.

Putting the quarter in the slot and gambling your money and your time away for something that you don’t know will make you wealthier, healthier, and wiser.

That’s not good!

If you went “Holy crap, I’m wasting time!” after reading that, you are on the fast track to intelligence.

You see that consumption trap?

I’ve got some news for you: Don’t fall for it, create it, but provide value.

Beware of Misleading Information

Almost everyone spits out BS every day.

In fact, that’s kind of what they like to do all day just to make up for the fact that they can’t think of anything better to do with their lives.

These people could be your friends, family (it better not be them), teachers, mentors, blog posts, or any other form of media out there.

Whatever the source is, one thing must be made clear: Never trust anything but the truth.

Because the truth is in the pudding.

The mission of every intelligent person is to seek out the truth and only make judgments from reality while taking into consideration what he or she wants in life.

Read that last sentence again.

Because that is the truth.

Every piece of information that comes your way my future islander must be taken with a heavy grain of salt.

Everything that you do, unless it’s life or death, must incorporate research and a thorough analysis of the facts.

The research will always give you the answers, assuming it’s correct.

That way, your risk is completely diminished since you can literally predict what is going to happen next since the facts just gave you the darn answers!

That’s clarity of vision. And that clarity of vision will give you the power to take action on what you need to do for yourself.

Read that last sentence again.

The clearer you are, the more powerful you become and the more rational you will become, not going into panic saying “Is this professor going to curve the grades? I hope that he does so that I can pass and avoid a surcharge!” Or, “Is he going to hire me? Is he going to pick me? Am I going to get the job?”

With clarity, you can calm your mind down, avoid paranoia, burnout, and you will take advantage of those who are in paranoia and are desperate for help. And that desperation for help and your knowledge that can solve their problems can mean some pretty big dividends for you my future islander 🙂

So how do you create that clarity of vision? Here’s how.

The Margin of Safety

The Margin of Safety is the degree to which you can be certain about a potential outcome. The greater this degree, the calmer you are and the more clear you are. The lower this degree means the more paranoid and antsy that you become and the more desperate you are.

To achieve this margin of safety, you must do the following steps:

1. Define what your goal is. This will guide your decision making; kind of like your target destination.

2. Gather as much information that you can about the alternative or outcome in question.

3. Validate that the information that you are receiving is true and accurate.

4. Once you validate the first outcome, repeat steps 1 and 2 for the next outcomes or alternatives being considered.

5. Once you have all of the options, review each option and see how they align with how they will make your situation better and/or make your goals obtainable.

6. Pick the option that generates the most certainty with the outcome that you desire, given the current constraints of course. In other words, vote yes or no on the options in question.

That’s really all there is to it in a nutshell.

Each security analysis will vary on a case by case basis, but the general platform listed above will remain the same throughout each process.

Execute those steps in your life and if you have any questions regarding them as it pertains to your situation, feel free to leave a comment below or drop me an email at evan@jointheisland.com.

And now comes the most important step of them all:

Commit to Keeping Your Mouth Shut When it Needs to Be

Let’s face it, people love talking. They love bragging and they love showing off whatever the heck that they want to show off.

For the most part, they are giving everything away to you to process.

And you should be happy about that.

Because guess what?

As an intelligent person, you get to use those pieces of information and you get to find out what those people want and how you could earn a dollar from them, or more for that matter.

They can influence your decision making, as long as it’s in a good way, and can make you a lucky man or woman.

The trick though?

Keep your mouth shut.

Why?

Because if you say something, you risk the chance of being exposed and your secrets being hacked.

If you say nothing, they’ll get nothing and you’ll never be held liable.

Now, that doesn’t mean stay silent when there’s a problem that you have to get rectified or you need to talk to get something significant done.

You better speak on those matters.

But if it’s for stupid shit, random stuff, or anything that doesn’t require you to speak to get ahead, ALWAYS keep your mouth shut.

Because the world will try to use those words to take you down if they can. And they will.

Always know this, when the situation does not call for speaking, always keep your mouth shut.

Read that line again and again and again.

Recommended reading

I’ll leave you off today with an extremely important book that has been extremely useful in my decision making and the decision making in many of the great investors of our day.

The book is called “The Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham.

Graham was the guy who taught Warren Buffett how to invest.

You should focus on 2 chapters, chapter 8 which is about not automatically believing what everyone else has to say, or otherwise known as “noise” and chapter 20, which is the one about the margin of safety.

These chapters go really in-depth related to what was introduced to you in this blog post.

To buy the book, click here.

Please note: I do receive an affiliate commission off of your purchase, but the price won’t change.

Now you’ll notice that this book is mainly focused on stocks.

Do yourself a favor, wipe that out.

It’s not just about stocks.

It’s about how you go about investing your most precious assets like your time, resources, and using the framework in chapters 8 and 20 to correctly identify what is the correct investment vehicle for you to achieve what you want.

Give chapters 8 and 20 a very good read and let me know in the comments what you think of them and what you got out of them.

Your understanding of these two chapters is the foundation for your intellectual success. Guaranteed.

Once you understand this blog post and those 2 chapters, you decision making process will improve drastically along with the way that you view time and that it should be an asset used extremely delicately and carefully, not wasted.

And of course, if you have any questions about this post and/or the book, leave a comment below and I’ll be more than happy to answer that question for you and guide you on your path to the island.

Until next time,

This is Chief Islander Evan signing off.