You're smarter than you think -- and dumber, too.

Let's suppose you work (1) cleaning houses or (2) teaching at a university or (3) selling real estate or (4) running a corporation or (5) collecting trash. I could go on and on, but the same principles apply, no matter what you're doing to earn your paycheck.

So you clean the houses of other people for a living. Maybe you do this because you didn't go to school long enough to get the degrees that would allow you to do other work, or maybe you do it because you're between jobs or looking for that first "good" job. Anyway, you're doing it.

You're smart. You observe every day how other people live their lives, within their homes.
You see how even the very rich can be sloppy and negligent, how even the most privileged among us leave wet towels on the bathroom floor and let their kids' rooms pile up with dirty laundry. You get a glimpse into what it's like to be so busy with social obligations that the ordinary day-to-day chores go undone -- which is why they hired you. You get an insight into that lifestyle you may covet but can't possess and how it all depends on you, the hired help.

You're dumber only if you think that the rich live lives totally different from yours. They
still have kids who act up, who go out of control. They have husbands who misbehave, wives who think that because they married wealthy men that they are somehow superior to you. The only difference between you and them is that they live in nicer houses. If you're smart, you go home and teach your kids how to pick up after themselves. It's a skill they will need later in life, regardless of who they grow up to be.

Or maybe you teach at a university. You don't do this because you're passionate about teaching freshmen but because you loved the subject of your Ph.D. and took all the classes your school had to offer until someone tapped you on the shoulder and said, "You'll have to leave now. We don't have any more degrees to offer you."

So you went on the market and got a job, and now you're teaching at Whatever College or University (or Community College, God help you). Being a new prof, you're assigned to intro level courses. You try to convey to your students the same interest you had in your Ph.D. subject, but they yawn and look at their watches -- maybe crank up their iPods -- and can't wait until the class is over.

You can overcome this, but it requires work. You're smarter than you think: you can make this work! But you're also dumber, if you expect your students -- who come from every ethnic and economic and otherwise background -- to be as interested in what you're teaching as you were when you were an undergrad and then a grad student. Well, they aren't -- duh! What you have to do is find a way to retrace your own thinking about that subject and re-discover what made YOU interested in it and then try to re-create that in your students. If you can re-connect yourself to your students, you'll be a great teacher.

Good luck.

Let's suppose you're selling real estate. You look at a house you're commissioned to sell, and you see that it's in a "hot" part of town: no problem. Customers are going to come in and put their money down, and you'll get your commission. No selling required. But what if you have a property that is rundown, or in a not-so-hot part of town? How do you sell that? You're smart, remember? You look at the people signed up to view it, and you decide which clients will be interested in "fixing up" the property because they like that part of town or because they don't have big money to spend, or whatever reason. You're dumber only if you try to push the property onto someone who is looking for something better. You're also dumber if you try to sell clients something they really can't afford and that will eventually go into foreclosure. You're smart if you accurately match your clients to the property; you're dumb if you just go for the sale. Your future is in past clients who trust you as well as future clients -- and those referrals and recommendations you get from satisfied customers. Right?

Now let's suppose that you've gotten your prestigious degree(s) and that you've risen through the ranks so that you're running a company. It doesn't matter what kind of company, as any good business student knows. Business is business: the basic principles apply, regardless.
And what are those principles? Number one, make a profit. Number two, keep your most valued employees happy. Number three, don't confuse your job with your life.

Everybody is depending on you to make the company not just profitable but attractive to future buyers/shareholders. What is smart? What is dumb? What is smart is to see where you are in the market and if you have a chance of expanding your share of that market. What is dumb is
to let opportunities slip away because you couldn't see beyond your own job security. Put the company's interests ahead of your own, however painful that may be in the short term.

Do not, however put the company's interests ahead of your workers' interests. It is inexcusably dumb to alienate your workers by not showing any sympathy/empathy with them. Did you take the heat from above and not let it all fall on your workers? Did you try to shield them from corporate wrath so that they could keep doing their jobs? And did you let them do their jobs without your constant micro-managing? Did you give them time off when they really needed it, to look after loved ones in need? Did you respect them as humans doing the best they could, under always difficult circumstances? If you're going to be hiring new employees constantly, that's not good for business -- and you're likely to lose them, too. Be a good and fair boss.

Oh, and don't confuse your job with your life, remember? You have a family, or at least those who love you and want to spend time with you. Don't short-change them. When your working days are done, you'll need them to be with you and remind you of who you were when you weren't chasing The Almighty Buck. If you lose them, you'll be forever sorry. And lonely.

Now let's suppose that what you do to earn a paycheck is collecting trash. How are you smart? How are you dumb? You're smart if you understand that your job is essential to the functioning of our society: someone has to collect that trash. You're dumb if you don't realize that many people who take this job are losers who had to take it because they had no other options. What can you do to make yourself stand out as smart? Do the job, without complaining -- even when it's bitterly cold outside, or it's raining, or you have a cold yourself -- and try to be cheerful. It's not easy, of course, but you're smart, and you know the boss is watching. Who do you think he/she is going to promote to driving the truck when the curent driver quits? Obviously the person who has been the least trouble to him/her, the person who has done what was required with the least griping, right?

And, in the meantime, you have gained useful information about what we, as a society, choose to throw away. Useful info for a future novel or non-fiction book about our disposable society.

We are as smart or dumb as we choose to be. I could go on and on about particular professions, but it all comes down to the same thing: observe and learn, and you'll succeed; go for the quick
buck -- at the expense of others -- and you'll eventually be looking for other work. Employers, on whatever level, look for employees who totally embrace whatever job they're given. When I was in the army, I once had the task of burning the shit of my fellow soldiers in big barrels. What did I learn from that job? That you can't give me a job I can't do. And do well.

Look at any job you're given as a learning experience. Absorb it and move on. You're smart, remember?