It has been said that successful people tend to concentrate on a problem for five minutes longer than the average person. This extra five minutes of contemplation has proven to make a world of difference in not only the big money making decisions but also the smaller, everyday issues.

If we were to base our decisions purely on our gut feeling, we would surely miss out. Our basic instincts held us in good stead when we still lived in caves and had to continuously fend for our lives, but times have changed and life has become dramatically easier.

In order to conserve much needed energy our ancestors had the natural inclination to stay unproductive for large periods of time. Mental activity was kept to the bare minimum and physical labour was reserved for hunting and survival. Unfortunately for many employers, people still seem to wander off into a sort of power saving mode. This happens to the best of us, however it is completely avoidable.

In In Search of the Human Mind, Robert Sternberg outlines twenty possible reasons why seemingly intelligent people tend to fail in one form or another. With this knowledge in hand we can understand ourselves a bit better and possibly even change our future outcomes.

To read the adaptation of Sternberg's Why Intelligent People Fail click here.

Sound Idea Digital is a full service digital marketing agency that specialises in content marketing. We can develop a comprehensive content marketing strategy for your company | info@soundidea | www.soundidea.co.za