🌼My 92-year-old Grandfather’s Method of Finding Out How Smart Someone is
## Learn from the wisdom of an old soul.
My grandfather was born in 1923 and died a few years ago.
He survived the famine, the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War, and decades of Franco’s dictatorship.
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Learn MoreHis secret was to anticipate events.
My grandfather knew how to invest in Amazon when it went public in 1997.
My grandfather was able to anticipate the economic crisis of 2008 and sell his real estate assets in time.
My grandfather was known in his village as “Partridge’s eye” because he was observant.
He knew that the secret of life was to observe and to know who to bet on and stay away from.
In the words of my grandfather, “Who gets close to a good tree, good shade shelters him. But for that, you must know how to differentiate between the wise (good tree) and the foolish (bad tree) because the ignorant only bring ruin”.
And for this, he had a method for cataloging people.
The method consisted of a set of signs that indicated a person’s social intelligence. The more of these signs my grandfather saw in someone, the more intelligent they were.
These are his famous signs.
# Intelligent people don’t just use empathy.
My grandfather used to say people assumed how someone would behave using empathy. And that was a big mistake.
For example, one of my uncles invited a couple to a fancy restaurant for dinner as a wedding present. My grandfather told his son that it would have been better to give the money for the fancy dinner on the wedding day in an envelope to his friend.
My uncle (his son) told him the couple getting married didn’t need money and were rich.
Well, everyone gave them money in an envelope on the wedding day except my uncle 😉
**Lesson:** Smart people don’t assume that others will behave like they would in x or g situations. Instead, they wait to see how others behave and act accordingly.
# Intelligent people take risks.
According to my grandfather, the worst thing you can do with money is to keep it under the mattress because it depreciates over time.
My grandfather reinvested 80% of what he earned and diversified to cover possible losses. That meant he was able to retire at almost 50.
He used to say that intelligent people invested and took risks. And ignorant people don’t.
The time they proved him right.
The money under your mattress can be stolen, the currency can fall, democracy in your country can cease, and the government can confiscate your cash and jewelry (which happened to 90% of my grandfather’s friends in the Spanish war).
And besides, as he said, “Investing in oneself is always a guarantee of intelligence. Those who invest are those who believe in the future. And those are the ones you have to get together with”.
**Lesson:** you don’t need to invest in the stock market, but if you don’t invest in yourself, in improving your skills and knowledge, according to my grandfather, you still have a lot to learn.
# Intelligent people remember the past.
My grandfather used to say that intelligent people learn from the past so as not to repeat the same mistakes in the future.
He also said, “if they fail you once, it may be bad luck; if they fail you twice, it is a pattern. That’s why we must not forget the past.”
Example: my father was often unfaithful to my mother and would return to her in regret when he needed something (a pattern).
Eventually, my parents divorced, and my grandfather told my mother, “don’t put your guard down; your ex will come back when he is old and sick for you to take care of him.”
My mother didn’t believe it because my father had decided to leave our lives, and she thought he would be consistent with the consequences.
Well, who contacted us from a hospital during the pandemic?
Indeed, my father.
My grandfather was right.
Did he know how to read the future? No. But he knew that history repeats itself because my grandfather was intelligent.
**Lesson:** if you don’t learn from your old mistakes, you’re not as smart as you think.
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# Takeaway
For my grandfather, the more of the above points you had, the smarter you were.
That’s how radical he was, and he was, because, as he said, “An ignorant person is more dangerous than a wicked person. Because the wicked would never kill the cow that feeds him, the ignorant would.”
That is why one of his favorite sayings was, “Tell me who you hang around with, and I will tell you who you are.”
I hope this article and my grandfather’s signs will help you know who is who in the masked ball of life.
A virtual hug
Contributed by Alberto GarcÃa
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