I’ve often said that if you could combine my brother’s intelligence with my work ethic, you’d have a makings of a CEO. He’s sharp, witty, interpersonal and has a great ability to retain information. But he’s also fairly lazy. In contrast, ever since high school, I’ve had to work a little harder than average to make up for my somewhat average IQ.
For the last few years, Tim has made a successful career at a car dealership that sells Acuras, Audis and Volkswagons. He started off in sales where his interpersonal skills and retained knowledge of the cars he was selling made him a winner. But he started to grow weary of test drives and dickering, so he set his sights on a promotion of finance manager. His boss was sold on the idea, but his boss’ boss was hesitant. Apparently the conversation went something like this…
Boss: Tim’s ready for the next move. I think we should consider him for the finance role.
Boss’s Boss: Tim? I don’t know. He seems a bit lazy.
Boss: Lazy? No way. He’s just laid back. He’s great with customers and smarter than any other salesman. He’ll be perfect.
A week later a woman bought a fully-loaded Audi and made her way over to Tim for financing. He pitched her his spiel about insurance, warranties, undercoats, upgrades and the like. When he was finished, she said, “Okay. I’ll take it all.”
Taking it all costs about $30,000. No one ever takes it all.
Except from Tim on his first week in a new job.
Maybe he’ll make CEO after all. And when he does, I bet he’ll need a hard-working right hand man of average intelligence to keep him on track.