by Julius Albert Custodio

Created on: June 14, 2009

Between money and intelligence, I will choose the limitless and more valuable resource, that is, intelligence. Even if I live in one of the poorest nations in the world, I will still choose to be smart rather than rich.

See, money can buy you a theater, but it's intelligence which will create the play. You can buy a library, but it's intelligence which will fill the shelves. What use is a hospital without the doctors or a courthouse without the lawyers and the judge? Sure, we may be experiencing an economic meltdown right now and it's considerably difficult just to get by each day. But God only knows how worse it would get if suddenly all smart people are wiped off the face of the planet.

We can continue through this train of thought and you will see how being rich is nothing compared to being intelligent.

For years, man has amassed great riches through industry and commerce but these things can never surpass the development of humankind's capacity to imagine, analyze, and create. If we pit the fortune of Donald Trump against the brilliance of Albert Einstein, surely, it's not hard to imagine which is more valuable. Trump can create as many skyscrapers as he can and it still won't reach the heights of Einstein's scientific theories.

It's through sheer intelligence with which we build our lives upon. Money is only secondary. If you will talk to the most successful people today, most of them will usually say that they've started from the bottom rung of the ladder. Remember that old fable about the turtle and the hare? Well, the same thing can be applied here. Armed only with their brains and their determination, these smart people climbed up step by step. They've learned new things along the way and they used this to get further ahead.

Of course, being born rich has its perks. After all, the world served you your life on a silver platter, there's nothing stopping you from enjoying this privileged life. Although, if you will contemplate on it, being intelligent gives you the edge over these rich people.

Let's take these to the extremes. Imagine you're a poor guy with a genius-level IQ. Given that you may not be the heir to a business tycoon's millions, but with your brain you have the opportunity to make your own millions, or even make more than that. Intelligence coupled with perseverance can make even the poorest man successful. A millionaire on the other hand can only aspire to match the intelligence of a genius. That's the cold, hard truth.

Some people claim that money makes the world go round. They may have forgotten that it's intelligence which keeps the world from spinning away from its axis.

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