I'm a fairly competitive guy so when one of my salespeople challenged me to literally match wits with him, I rose to the bait.
"What's your I.Q., Gary?"
"I dunno."
"No, really, what is it-Have you ever been tested?"
"In school I took some exams and they said I was a classic underachiever, so I suppose they wouldn't bother saying that to a dunce."
"You should have it tested."
"Why, Barry, do I need an I.Q. test, when my job as a manager is to deal with bozos like you?"
"I just joined Mensa," he went on, "You know, the genius society, and if your I.Q. is over 130, you can join, too! All you have to do is take an I.Q. test."
This was one of those weird conversations in which you don't want to go on with it, but at the same time, you can't stop.
"Barry, where would I get an I.Q. test?"
"Mensa will test you, or you could take one at the university. They'll accept that, too."
He was right. The Counseling Center at school administered all kinds of tests, so I could probably get tested for free. Plus, if I turned out to be a certified simpleton, no one would be the wiser, but me.
Sometime during the next week, I popped into the Center and asked for a test and they said I'd have to see a counselor, first. What a waste, I thought, but my quest was important enough to slay a dragon or two along the path.
A suitably somber, bespectacled psychologist asked me why I wanted to know my I.Q., and I told him about Barry, Mensa, and my long time personal curiosity.
At the end of our chat he decided NOT to give me what I asked for, but instead to give me a vocational guidance instrument that informed me I would be great at real estate sales and make a very disgruntled forester.
His reason for withholding the I.Q. test was this: What if I discovered I was a genius? What, then? Would I just hang around feeling superior while squandering my gifts?
And if I were a dim bulb, what would I do? Would I use this discovery as an excuse to feel inferior, and as a perfect justification not to try hard to achieve challenging goals?
Having bought into the logic of the counselor, I never bothered to take an I.Q. test.
Instead, I went on to earn five degrees, to teach on the regular faculty at three universities, to teach in continuing education at 40 more, and to write some best-selling books.
If my subconscious goal was to prove I was smart, perhaps it would have been more efficient to have found another place to have taken that test!