Which is more important?

Question

Which is more important and why, high intelligence or high motivation.

Answer 1

first of all, there are many kinds of intelligences-- and thus, many kinds of motivation. if we're talking of the IQ kind of thing, it has its ups and downs. high intelligence does not guarantee anyone success in life. gifted people with emotional problems pose a bigger problem to educators like me than do people with mental retardation. high IQ is just the stepping stone. where you go from there is all up to you.

high motivation helps people succeed. there is such a thing called achievement motivation, where a person strives hard to reach his/her goals. if the emotional quotient or EQ runs high, the person is focused and emotionally healthy, success cant help but come.

then there's resilience-- an important factor in the intelligence-motivation-success cycle-- where people succeed DESPITE adversities. or DISABILITIES like mental retardation, the exact opposite of giftedness. even people with MR can succeed, as i've proven in my class again and again, if the level of achievement motivation is high.

on the other hand, a person with high intelligence coupled with an underachieving attitude is almost doomed to fail-- unless intervention can be given to improve self-esteem.

i hope these have been of help to you.

Answer 2

I guess motivation is more important. If your motivated thenyou can always motivate yourself to become more intelligent. If you're just intelligent and not motivated, then what good would it be to be smart if you're not motivated to do something with your intelligence? Motivation is the key to life and getting things done! Being lazy will get you no where!

Answer 3

I think motivation would be more important than high intelligence. If you are a genious, but not motivated to utilize that intelligence in the best possible way, you could become just a slacker, whereas, someone less intelligent, but highly motivated would learn what he or she needs to konw to be highly successful.

Answer 4

Motivation. Intelligence or no intelligence you can still learn skills. Acquiring and mastering a skill has little to do with your intellectual ability, but whether or not you continue to CONSISTENTLY practice it, and that is where motivation comes in. Any and all world famous geniuses would not have gotten where they are if they hadn't constantly practiced and honed their abilities. On the other hand, there are plenty of successful people out there who are as dumb as empty buckets, how else did they get there?

Answer 5

High motivation. Intelligence without it is useless.

Woodrow Wilson had a great line about "the ash-heap of history is full of brilliant failures." Or something like that.

Answer 6

You need motivation to become intelligent and you dont need intelligence to be motivated.....so high motivation.

Answer 7

Important for what? To earn money, motivation is often more useful. For conversation and to be attractive to me, intelligence. It depends on what you are trying to do.

Answer 8

high motivation is more important because you could be the smartest person in the world and not do anything with your life!

Answer 9

high motivation..because without motivation,,what good would intelligence be..

Answer 10

high motivation because it can motivate you to achieve high intelligence.