Why do intelligent people choose not to start their own business?

Imagine if all intelligent people in the world decide to go for business or entrepreneurship. Not only their countries will change but also the whole world will change. In recent years, there are so many inspirational stories of intelligent people cementing their places in their respective industries and playing their role in reshaping the modern world.

Question is why do intelligent people choose not to start their own business?

To understand this, let’s take a look at a story and try to drive a lesson out of it.

Have you heard the story of the two frogs in the pail of milk?

No?. Okay, let me be your storyteller with the hope that you learn a good lesson in the end.

Once upon a time, there were two frogs. Both were best friends and while playing and jumping the two fell in a pail of fresh milk.

Extremely worried about their survival, they tried hard to jump out and time, again and again, they could not succeed.

Both kept trying for long until one of the frogs, exhausted from all the paddling and tossing around said to the other frog.

“I think this is it, I am done. There’s no reason for me to continue trying to paddle as we can not escape. I am sure, we will never get out of this place and will die soon. I have no hope…”

That being said, he let himself sink to the bottom of the pain to drown and die.

The other frog, saddened and stressed by the loss of his partner kept paddling around the milk without losing hope because he did not know what else to do and he never wanted to give up. He said to himself:

“I am not giving up on this. I am optimistic and as long as I don’t get breathless, I am going to continue paddling and hope somehow I can get out of this place…”

After a while, the frog noticed, the milk was thickening up and was getting harder to paddle and required more energy.

What was happening?

Because of paddling done by him and his friend, the milk was turning into the cream and later into butter. The frog got encouraged by the thickness of the surface and continued paddling until the surfaced hardened enough for him to jump out of the pain.

Because of continuous struggle, persistence, and effort, his life was saved.

The point of the story?

The takeaway from this amazing story is, sometimes being too smart can work against you. Sometimes a little dumbness is needed with persistence to sail through tough storms in life. The problem with intelligent people is, they believe they are the best and they know what will work and why something wouldn’t work. They are good with reasoning and therefore they back up their decisions with a reason without realizing one simple fact, nothing beats hard work and continuous efforts in pursuit of your goals.

My little experience in life has taught me, for you to build a business based on your own dreams, always be persistent against all odds. There will be a struggle, point of lows but never say no even if it makes you look “stupid” in front of others.

Let’s take a look at another example. A human who struggled for big part of his life. He is Jack Ma. He was a rolling stone for about 4 decades of his life. He applied for KFC as a waiter, was rejected. He applied for Harvard school, was rejected but that did not let him give up on his dreams. Fast forward, two decades later, today — he is the richest man in China.

The moral of the story is “No Matter What Happens, Never Ever Give Up On Yourselves”

Jack Ma, The China’s richest man and founder of Alibaba is one of the most prolific business person and great motivational speaker.