Not being the smartest MBA

Mark Yusko, who manages Morgan Creek Capital Partners with 10B in assets under management came to speak to our Private Equity class a couple of weeks ago. He's the ultimate contrarian and has a lot of interesting opinions on the state of the U.S. and global economy.  He considers the U.S. a submerging market along with much of Europe and Japan. 

He had a great line of questioning for the large group of MBA's in attendance that relates strongly to investing:

1) How many of you think you're in the top quartile of intelligence in the room?

2) How many of you think you're in the top quartile for looks in the room?

3) How many of you think you're in the top quartile for height in the room?

He said for the first question about 85% would say yes for number two about 60% and for number three about 50% even though you can look around and know if it's true or not. 

That's stuck with me for the past couple of weeks.  I think one of the things I've learned the most in business school is the need to really understand one's strengths and how they add value.  It's important to leverage those strengths to also generate confidence in your work but not to let your ego allow you to think there's more to you than there really is. 

When investing time or money it's important to be able to gauge your own ability and work from there.