Business favors social adaptable generalists

Success in business demands
sociability, adaptability,
and endurance of unfavorable
circumstances.

I want to be in business, but I am unable to engage so I am weak in social skills. As the saying goes in the four-intelligence scale, people who have an average IQ but higher EQ and SQ are some of the world's most successful in life. In short, business favors people who are socially adaptable and emotionally resilient. I am not one of those people because the education system never trained me on how to socialize.

The Collins English Dictionary defines business as work relating to the production, buying, and selling of goods or services. The Encyclopaedia Britannica (which means "British Encyclopedia" in Latin) defines a business organization as an entity formed for the purpose of carrying on commercial enterprise. Depending on how the underlying state curates its rules, a business organization can take on many forms.

To the practical-oriented, there are four kinds of intelligence: intelligence quotient (IQ), emotional quotient (EQ), social quotient (SQ), and adversity quotient (AQ). The IQ is associated with memory and problem-solving. The EQ determines how a subject manages emotions, offers empathy, and handles stress. The SQ refers to a subject's knowledge and skills in socializing and maintaining meaningful social relations. The AQ speaks of a subject's endurance of undesirable developments. Resorting to violence and the lack of empathy indicate low EQ. Having no friends indicates low SQ. Giving up one's own family or wishing to die indicates low AQ.

The business world, as for its observable emphasis on practicality, clearly favors those who have average IQ but high EQ, high SQ, and average-to-high AQ. In other words, the business world requires people who are willing to socialize, present favorable emotions, or adapt to clouds of failures or defeats. When we say "defeats" or "failures," we mean the common uncomfortable occurrences such as spoiled products or unusable computers. It is a disappointing reality to see the intensely educated ending up working for less educated higher-ups. The world's most successful people are generally social and adaptable. Meanwhile, the intensely educated, as in those with masteral or doctoral degrees, notably have very specialist tendencies: they can only find employment in a select number of companies and institutions. The portrayals in Scooby Doo illustrate how an economic crisis forces the educated to turn to crime in desperate attempts to cushion the loss of their cherished professions.

Change [or challenge] the education system

Most academic programs overemphasize the IQ but neglect the other three. This results in people who have highly specialized and theoretical knowledge but permanently fail at practical issues beyond what their academic programs trained them for. I am a product of a failed education. Factoring in unemployed graduates, it is no surprise that many people openly challenge the value of higher education.

The education system should be transfigured. It should pay equal attention to the four intelligences. Primary and secondary levels should train students in basic life skills like how to make friends. At the secondary level, academic institutions should be directed to train students on things like disaster response or outdoor education. Secondary-level education should include basic lessons on business and allow exploration of multiple business systems.

Academic institutions in general should emphasize lesson quality and train students to be more of a generalist. In emphasizing lesson quality, there should be fewer lessons and those lessons should be crucial to living and adapting to an ever-changing world, not to mention acceptance of failure and defeat. A generalist engages in multiple fields of labor, although at a summary range. As the world of business is dynamic and diverse, a generalist who can socialize and endure the undesirable is the star of the show.