It's all a relative thing. If I visit the park and watch the ravens, I can see this. Ravens are pretty smart, but their lives are simple. If something bothers t

It's all a relative thing. If I visit the park and watch the ravens, I can see this. Ravens are pretty smart, but their lives are simple. If something bothers them, they don't have to negotiate or fight, they can just fly away from it. Nature is not asking them to be "30 under 30" or "award-winning". That's a feeling you get from seeing other people be praised for their efforts. If you can feel OK with yourself just living and surviving, that is the first step to doing something more ambitious, because it takes some pressure off: "oh, but even if I fail at this, I will still have a warm bed and food" should be enough to feel confident. Getting it in your head that you need to conquer the world is actually rather poisonous because it makes you chase after the same things as everyone else. You are most likely too smart for that, and see downsides in terms of life balance that make you hesitate and stay beneath the radar. Other people are less smart and more persistent, more willing to put up with the repetition, begging and borrowing needed to achieve that particular form of success. Smarts are just a way of solving a problem after you have been motivated to work on it.