Question

Choose ONE of the three arguments given below and develop a coherent essay that critically evaluates it. Support your analysis with relevant claims, reasons and/or examples. The essay should not exceed 250 words.

Argument III. Someone with half your IQ is making 10X as you because they aren't smart enough to doubt themselves.

Answer 1

The argument that “someone with half your IQ is making 10× as much because they aren’t smart enough to doubt themselves” is rhetorically appealing, but deeply flawed. It oversimplifies success, misunderstands intelligence, and unfairly frames self-doubt as a weakness rather than a necessary cognitive skill.

First, IQ is not meaningfully measured by income, courage, or confidence. Financial success depends on a complex mix of opportunity, timing, networks, market conditions, privilege, risk tolerance, and luck. Highlighting a few visible success stories, entrepreneurs, unconventional professionals, or media personalities, creates a classic survivorship bias. For every “MBA Chai Wala,” there are thousands of equally courageous individuals whose risks did not pay off and whose stories are never told.

Second, self-doubt is not the enemy of progress; unchecked confidence often is. Doubt enables critical thinking, reflection, and risk assessment. Many high-performing individuals and institutions succeed precisely because they question assumptions, test ideas, and anticipate failure. Overconfidence, on the other hand, frequently leads to poor decisions, ethical lapses, and unsustainable growth. The 2008 financial crisis is a reminder that confidence without caution can be catastrophic.

Third, framing education and intelligence as irrelevant dismisses their real value. Formal education may not guarantee success, but it builds analytical skills, domain knowledge, and problem-solving capacity that often compound over time. Long-term innovation, scientific progress, and systemic impact overwhelmingly come from disciplined expertise, not just bold beginnings.

Finally, reducing success to “courage versus doubt” promotes a misleading moral narrative: that those who struggle simply lacked bravery. This ignores structural inequalities and shifts responsibility away from systems toward individuals.

Courage matters, but so do humility, competence, and thoughtful doubt. Progress is rarely achieved by confidence alone, it is sustained by wisdom.
 

Answer 2

Given: "Well-begun is half done." We have heard this over the years, but how many of us actually have the courage to begin at all? How many of us can shed that doubt? 

We have now entered the year 2023, and it is a shame that in a country as vast and diverse as India, we still measure a person's intelligence quotient (IQ) based on their level of education, their alma mater, or the choice of degree they pursue. How much further will we keep digging? And why do we judge someone based only on a sheet of paper?

There are several other factors that go into deciding a person's IQ rather than the stream they choose or the entrance examination they crack (or not). Today, we see people with half the IQ than that of someone from a top-notch college making ten times or even more. We see many examples.

There are Product Managers who studied in tier-3 colleges, working at companies with an annual revenue of more than ₹150 crore, who never had a fancy tech or MBA degree, yet earn more than those with the same. There are entrepreneurs without any formal training building great products and services. There is even a self-titled "MBA Chai Wala" earning more than MBA graduates from the top B-Schools in the country.

And you know what they all have in common? Courage. Courage to take risks, to face failure, to not doubt themselves. There is a saying in Hindi which roughly translates to: "The loser is the one who never fought." And why does one not fight? Because they doubt themselves and their capabilities. That is where they lose the game before it has even begun.