In his book, ‘The Millionaire’s Mind’, Dr. Thomas J. Stanley surveyed thousands of millionaires before concluding that ‘big brains means no bucks’. Other research conducted in the United States shows that a "positive mind-set," rather than intelligence, is the most essential element of success. A third study of a sample group of American millionaires established that their academic profile was ‘truly mediocre’ but had  ‘personable’ characters. The average sampled American millionaire had an Intelligence Quotient within one-third standard deviation of the norm, making them well and truly cognitively nondescript. A similar study in relatively more class conscious Europe has yet to be done. But in the US, students from large state-run schools out-earn their Ivy League peers. In Asia, the majority of billionaires lacked any formal education beyond secondary level. Neither the richest man in the US nor Asia even hold university degrees.  Rather than mere intelligence, far more important to achieving business success were

a)      the ability to stay upbeat

b)      the hunger for success

c)      their willingness to admit to, and learn from, mistakes.