The Student Room Group

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
Richard Branson intelligent?
The entrepreneurs mind set is different than any other, you really have to be an entrepreneur to understand.
Probably because they get fed up with people not spelling correctly.

:rolleyes: and points to newly changed and spelt correctly thread title.
Reply 4
In many cases they might have had dyslexia or something like that. A few years ago it would have been unrecognised so they just got labelled stupid when clearly there's more to it. Don't know about any specific cases so I could be totally wrong.
Reply 5
EffingKrazy
I was wondering and what people thought of high fliers now who didn't perform well at school and din't get good grades. people like richard branson etc....why don't you think these type of people not do well at school? and what about the high fliers at school who get a's? do any of you feel cheated? discuss.

They don't feel challenged -> are bored -> don't do any work in a system that puts an emphasis on the reproduction of facts.
People who get As: either gifted people who have recognized the importance of As and are disciplined enough to work for them or people who aren't particularly talented, but work hard to achieve their goals.
A very high level of academic ability can sometimes indicate a corresponding high level of intelligence, but there's not any particularly strong link between grades and intellect. In cases where intelligent people have the desire to go on to do things which will require top grades - competetive university courses, for example - then they are likely to acheive them, but for an intelligent person who wants a career which will not require grades, there's no reason for them to acheive at school. Good grades more often reflect future desires than intellectual capacity.

For an entrepreneur, grades don't mean a thing and so a person who wants to build up their own business won't bother with them; rather than wasting time learning things that have very little impact on the business world, a potential entrepreneur would be better getting hands on experience.

EDIT: As an academic acheiver myself, I don't feel in the slightest bit cheated by people who are sucessful without doing well at school. If anything I feel cheated by the fact I've had to waste so much time in school myself to in order to get a few letters printed on a piece of paper that will facilitate my advancing in my chosen field.
People like Richard Branson are very creative and may have lots of ideas. Also, you don't have to be an A grade student to be intelligent. Many of the people have probably learnt a lot from their everyday life and in society.
Reply 8
Jammertal
They don't feel challenged -> are bored -> don't do any work in a system that puts an emphasis on the reproduction of facts.

yea thats pretty much it.
Reply 9
Jammertal
They don't feel challenged -> are bored ->




I agree with that, if you dont feel challenged and get bored in school you totally mess around and do something else to entertain yourself.
Reply 10
Ideas. Simple ones.
They probably dont find the system too encouraging for them to do well in. It may bore their high flying, super creative mind.
El Scotto

I agree with that, if you dont feel challenged and get bored in school you totally mess around and do something else to entertain yourself.


Exactly, thats kind of how i've felt. Not trying to boast or anything like that, but i've always been pretty intelligent, upto the point that I was seriously annoying my primary school teachers, as I could read fluently, whilst they were still teaching the basics to the other kids.

Yet all school is, upto university at least, is being able to learn a bunch of facts, and then repeat them in the exams. Even in subjects such as History and English, you are basically taught the analysis in class, and then just have to write it up again. This happens even upto a-levels, as, although I can only say for Psychology (the only essay subject I took) we were basically just given lists of critisisms to learn, and the only real skill is making it into a coherant sentance.
Reply 13
Chumbaniya
A very high level of academic ability can sometimes indicate a corresponding high level of intelligence, but there's not any particularly strong link between grades and intellect. In cases where intelligent people have the desire to go on to do things which will require top grades - competetive university courses, for example - then they are likely to acheive them, but for an intelligent person who wants a career which will not require grades, there's no reason for them to acheive at school. Good grades more often reflect future desires than intellectual capacity.

Exactly. That's my explanation for why I suddenly did well when I knew what I wanted to do- which was only in year 13 but though.
They are just so intelligent you can't comprehend it.
Reply 15
foxo
Richard Branson intelligent?


Go get a few million like he did then from scratch.

Cheers,
Jammertal
They don't feel challenged -> are bored -> don't do any work in a system that puts an emphasis on the reproduction of facts.
People who get As: either gifted people who have recognized the importance of As and are disciplined enough to work for them or people who aren't particularly talented, but work hard to achieve their goals.


Thats not true because i know real clever people that put no effort in and still get top grades.

I know why the reason is, and its because its a sterotype. Its not that all these self made Billonairs or multi millonairs are dumb, its just that to make this money takes different kinds of skills then what you learn at school, so whilst a lot of them are acedemic a lot are not.
EffingKrazy
I was wondering and what people thought of high fliers now who didn't perform well at school and din't get good grades. people like richard branson etc....why don't you think these type of people not do well at school? and what about the high fliers at school who get a's? do any of you feel cheated? discuss.

"Motivation" is a reason people frequently cite when discussing how well people do in school. Students who do well are considered "highly motivated," whereas those who don't do as well are "less motivated," and those who do poorly are simply dismissed as being "unmotivated".

I've sat on my school council; I know the drill, but the motivation factor misses the point. All students are motivated; the question is, "what are they motivated to do?" If you watch infants or young children (help run a playscheme this Summer), you'll notice that curiosity and desire to learn are natural human traits. Every individual is motivated to learn and to make sense of his/her world. The fact that many students are not so motivated to be told what to do and how to learn is another matter.

Ask yourself - why do/did you want to do well in school - to please your teacher, to impress your friends, to satisfy your parents, to get into a good university, to get a well-paying job? These reasons are well and good, but they should not be your primary goals. The crux of the matter is that doing well should make you feel intrinsically great.

The best work is done for the love of it, not for external rewards like praise, grades or treats. You should want to learn to please yourself, not others. Unfortunately too many students are motivated by external factors. And ironically, those students who depend on external rewards like grades and acceptance are less likely to achieve them compared to students who see excellence as its own reward. Working for high marks or teachers'/parental praise puts your self-image and self-esteem at the mercy of things outside your control.

Of course, it's a kick getting straight As or becoming head boy/girl, but if you're working hard for external factors like those, you're not going to be able to continue your success in the less-defined world outside of the education system.

Think about it - we've all been conditioned to believe that school is designed to promote learning, and that our grades are objective measures of how much we've learnt. Cast your mind back to the three types of students at the beginning of this post: some of them happily go along with what they're told, doing well at what they're told to do; some resent that school isn't connected to their lives and interests, and are angered by the lies and hypocrisy they perceive in the school system - they see it as a game and refuse to play by its rules; some though, use the experience, however good/bad, to focus their attention on what they really want to do in their lives, then create experimental models to try out - it is this group who, with a little persistence, become the "high fliers" of the thread starter's post.

'I am always ready to learn, but I do not always like being taught' :: Winston Churchill
Ron Stoppable

"Motivation" is a reason people frequently cite when discussing how well people do in school. Students who do well are considered "highly motivated," whereas those who don't do as well are "less motivated," and those who do poorly are simply dismissed as being "unmotivated".

I've sat on my school council; I know the drill, but the motivation factor misses the point. All students are motivated; the question is, "what are they motivated to do?" If you watch infants or young children (help run a playscheme this Summer), you'll notice that curiosity and desire to learn are natural human traits. Every individual is motivated to learn and to make sense of his/her world. The fact that many students are not so motivated to be told what to do and how to learn is another matter.

Ask yourself - why do/did you want to do well in school - to please your teacher, to impress your friends, to satisfy your parents, to get into a good university, to get a well-paying job? These reasons are well and good, but they should not be your primary goals. The crux of the matter is that doing well should make you feel intrinsically great.

The best work is done for the love of it, not for external rewards like praise, grades or treats. You should want to learn to please yourself, not others. Unfortunately too many students are motivated by external factors. And ironically, those student who depend on external rewards like grades and acceptance are less likely to achieve them compared to student who see excellence as its own reward. Working for high marks or teachers'/parental praise puts your self-image and self-esteem at the mercy of things outside your control.

Of course, it's a kick getting straight As or becoming head boy/girl, but if you're working hard for external factors like those, you're not going to be able to continue your success in the less-defined world outside of the education system.

Think about it - we've all been conditioned to believe that school is designed to promote learning, and that our grades are objective measures of how much we've learnt. Cast your mind back to the three types of students at the beginning of this post: some of them happily go along with what they're told, doing well at what they're told to do; some resent that school isn't connected to their lives and interests, and are angered by the lies and hypocrisy they perceive in the school system - they see it as a game and refuse to play by its rules; some though, use the experience, however good/bad, to focus their attention on what they really want to do in their lives, then create experimental models to try out - it is this group who, with a little persistence, become the "high fliers" of the thread starter's post.

'I am always ready to learn, but I do not always like being taught' :: Winston Churchill


That was a really good explanation!:smile:
:congrats: :congrats: :congrats: +ve rep coming your way.
EffingKrazy
I was wondering and what people thought of high fliers now who didn't perform well at school and din't get good grades. people like richard branson etc....why don't you think these type of people not do well at school? and what about the high fliers at school who get a's? do any of you feel cheated? discuss.

Some entrepeneurs, eg. Branson feel that if they cannot win (such as getting good grades, etc) by playing by the rules, then they'll make their own rules and standards, and that could be a possible explanation of why he went on to be so successful, ie. he didn't look at the way people traditionally viewed situations, and instead chose a different path.

Alternatively, there are plenty of very successful people who did well at school, etc, such as Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, etc.