Had a good correspondence with a reader recently, who mentioned that he's got the, "If you're so smart, how come you ain't rich?" thing going on.
My reply -
Well, I think intelligence isn't the only thing. Maybe not even the most important thing. I'd rank -
*Effectiveness
*Desire
*Consistency/persistence
all higher than intelligence for tangible success.
By "effectiveness", I just mean the ability to get shit done. I don't have a fancy definition of it, but some people can obviously get shit done, and others can't. You need to be able to get shit done to get wealthy (or otherwise do meaningful things).
Then desire - a lot of people, it doesn't really occur to them to get wealthy. Or they don't want it. Or they don't think it's possible to them. Or - and this is totally fair - they rank other things as more important than wealth. That's fine if that's what they choose.
On cultivating desire, I'd recommend Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" if you haven't read it. I mean, it's not as good as the hype about it (it's good, but waaaay overhyped in my opinion) - but there are some very, very valuable points in there. Recommended.
Then consistency/persistence - I think you've got to be working on your long term objectives almost daily. At least weekly... if you put them off until some undetermined date in the future, it's very likely they never happen. So the ability to consistently put in time and persist when things suck (and keep putting in time, even if you're sick/tired/demoralized/whatever), I think those are all important.
Intelligence is maybe #4? I'll take an effective-gets-shit-done person who is desirous of success and consistent/persistent over someone who is more intelligent but not those things.
So yeah. What do you, specifically? Ever written out your goals? Highly recommended if not. Gives you a roadmap. I try to look at some of my goals every morning too, helps stay on track with the consistency thing.