By: Rhett Seitz
Recently, I was scrolling through YouTube and stumbled upon a video in my feed titled “Life rewards action, not intelligence.” It was a leadership presentation by Conor Neill. Intrigued, I clicked the video, thinking it might be clickbait. Instead, his video left me with insights that changed the way I view life.
The main premise was all in the title. Neill emphasized how many of us grow up believing that the secret to getting far in life is raw intelligence. Much of this misconception stems from the fact that we spend our early formative years in school, where success is often attributed to being “smart.”
While schooling certainly involves intelligence, especially certain subjects, that brainpower isn’t something you have the moment you come out of the womb. Sure, some may argue that certain people are born brighter than others, but most of that success we see in school actually comes from action. The A grade that a student earns is rarely the result of raw genius allowing them to ace a test on material they’ve never seen. It is the result of action: the effort to learn new material, study it and apply it to homework or exams—even if it meant the possibility of failure.
I say this to encourage you: You are not limited by your intelligence, your natural academic abilities or how gifted school says you are. Your success comes from taking action. Real success doesn’t come from getting it right the first time; it comes from trying—from showing up—consistently.
History is full of brilliant people who started on the wrong foot but succeeded through sheer persistence. Consider Albert Einstein. While he was undoubtedly a genius, he famously struggled with the rigid structure of the schooling system. It wasn’t just his brain that changed physics; it was his relentless action to question, publish and prove his theories.
I experienced this personally in one of my earliest college classes: Calculus I. I studied for my first test and got a 52%. The issue? I wasn’t studying the right way. I tried to memorize everything as I was used to doing in humanities classes, rather than doing several practice problems. I quickly realized that if I didn’t change my approach, I would continue to fail. I considered dropping the class.
Did I lack intelligence? No. I just hadn’t taken the right action. Did I give up? Absolutely not. Once I implemented a new study method and committed to working out every practice problem, I ended up getting an A in the course. It was a complete turnaround, fueled entirely by a change in action.
This principle applies to everyone. Nobody is born a successful finished product. We all have to learn and experiment, even if it means failing a few times. Life is a journey. Think of children learning to walk. They don’t automatically know how to balance; they stumble. But after toddlers take action to make those first wobbly steps, they eventually run. That is the beauty of living this life, this side of heaven.
It is the same with any successful person you admire. It wasn’t luck or magic IQ points that got them there. It was hard work and effort until their craft became second nature. When you see someone and think, “That person is a better singer or speaker than me and must be smarter,” that is rarely the case. They likely just took more action than you did when it comes to that craft. It’s also the case with finding a job or dating.
You may be quick to judge someone or think you aren’t as good as someone else. The truth is that you just did not take action, while they did. Intelligence in any area follows action, not the other way around.
I say all of this here today to encourage you. If you ever feel down or limited by your academic abilities, maybe it’s time to try something different. Or if you have a goal for this new year that you want to fulfill, maybe it’s time to take the first step. Action comes first, then intelligence follows.
I’m not here to say that action is the end-all, cure-all for everything in life, because it’s not. But action is the answer for a lot, and possibly most, of life’s challenges.
For us at Southern, another word for this kind of action is faith.
The Bible is clear on this. Psalm 139:14 (NKJV) reminds us, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” You are capable of more than you think you are. God does not limit you here by your intelligence. If that were the case, then God would not be a just or awesome God. On the other hand, God gave you the ability to take action.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:7 (NIV), “Knock and the door will be opened to you.” Notice the requirement? You have to knock. The best opportunities in life are the ones you seek after, not the ones that just happen to fall into your lap.
So, what are you waiting for? You have the promise in Philippians 4:13 (NKJV) that you “can do all things through Christ who strengthens [you].” Stop waiting for the perfect moment or for a sudden stroke of genius. Take that leap of faith. Take action. It’s as close to magic as you can get.
