Top Grades Don't Spell Success

By CHARLES M. GUTHRIE

of the editorial page staff

published by the StarTribune 

June 16, 1963

IN THE AGE OF COMPLEX technology we suffer under, there's more premium on brains than ever before. The "A" student is the best hope for the country's future.  He is the best bet to make good after graduation, particularly if a science, math or engineering major.  He is the glory boy.  He is sought after by industry and government.  His starting pay may be higher than his dad's ever was.

   Conversely, the prospects of the "C average" Joe, who has specialized in nothing much but horsing around during his stay within the ivied walls, are bordered in black.  There are few flutters in the audience when he gets his diploma.  Not much can be expected of this easy-going lout.

   So runs the general sentiment.  But don't abandon Joe to mediocrity too soon, even though his IQ is run-of -the-mill.  If he is a well-adjusted, congenial extrovert of engaging personality who thinks he's ready for the big run, he may run faster than his scholarly classmate.  This is especially so if the latter is shy and diffident and snarled up with complexes.  Adversity may claim this lad in spite of his brains.

   PERSONALITY CONTRIBUTES as much to success as brains, maybe more.  He who has both is abundantly blessed but many a fellow gets along very well with a two-cylinder think machine while the one who has brains alone needs to be a genius to enjoy success.

   I'll take the well adjusted, aggressive, confident and socially-minded youth as my candidate for the full life.  If he's an "A" student, fine.  But if he's  merely an average one I still favor him over the shy and stand-offish honor graduate.

   Those in our society who are old enough to start wondering about Social Security benefits can, in fact, recall classmates who got through school by outwearing the patience of their instructors; fellows who went to school mainly for fun and spent more time over pool tables than over their books.  But by some miracle of injustice they became bank presidents, heads of law and insurance firms and leaders in business and politics.

   Chiefly what such poor-student-to-top-executive boys have going for them, I think, is abundant self-confidence and unawareness of weakness.  They think they are good and they get others to thinking it.  They can talk with authority even though without substance, answer questions glibly and easily, and be quite convincing.

   They do not look back.  They do not brood.  They are racked by no what-might-have-beens.  They do not toss and turn in bed and wish they had said this or hadn't said that.  They sleep well and have no ulcers.  For them there are no yesterdays, only beckoning tomorrows.

   THEY ARE TO BE ENVIED, and it's too bad they are so few.  Anxiety is close to a universal affliction, and a major one.  It strikes early.  You see it in the faces of small children who have been slighted by playmates.  You see it in the first days of school.  You want to take these little sufferers in your arms and tell them they haven't been slighted, really, and that their worries are small ones and best forgotten.

   But as they reach for happiness, anxiety will be their portion again and yet again and it may thwart their progress.  Triumph and laughter will be tempered by disappointment and pain.

   It would be great if Joe, the extrovert, could show us how to avoid all this but he can't.  It's something in his genes that he can't share.


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