I think the key to becoming smart is believing that you're smart. However one ends up with that confidence varies--testing as "high IQ", going to a good univers

I think the key to becoming smart is believing that you're smart. However one ends up with that confidence varies--testing as "high IQ", going to a good university, learning it from your parents, failing and having something to prove--they all work. If someone truly believes, in their bones, that they can do something and then work like hell to achieve it--I'm betting on that person no matter what the establishment thinks that person capable of.