If someone needs to tell you how intelligent they are, then they probably don’t fulfill my criteria for intelligence. Their qualities themselves distinguish them from ordinary people.
Intelligent people ask you many questions.
When you answer, they will listen and ask you more questions.
When you start using big words, they ask for clarification.
When they can’t understand anything you’re saying, they ask you to explain it to them as if they were a five-year-old.
When you say something interesting that arouses their curiosity, they write it down in their notebook or phone.
These people are not naturally more intelligent.
They’re better learners which makes them more intelligent.
They are not afraid to say: ‘I don’t know.’
If they don’t know it, they would love to learn it from others.
They are genuinely curious and ask questions from a humble standpoint.
I have met billionaires who have said, “Explain it to me as if I were a five-year-old.”
This simple phrase has changed my life when it comes to learning.
It comes back to the famous quote:
The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.
As soon as you stop asking questions, you stop learning.
As soon as you stop writing down ideas, you forget them.
The hardest part of becoming intelligent is not about what you know; it’s being humble enough to ask questions.
Intelligent people don’t just ask normal questions. They ask right and thought-provoking questions.
Intelligent people know that asking thought-provoking questions is just as important as providing answers. That’s because such questions challenge your thinking and help you come up with new solutions to old problems.
If you can do this, then people will see you as intelligent, too.
Albert Einstein famously said, “I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious.”
