• Blog
  • Archives
  • Bio
  • Awards
  • Speaking
  • Book
  • Contact

Ogilvy

Published: Wednesday, 20 March 2013

A lot of successful entrepreneurs dropped out of school (Richard Branson) or university (Bill Gates).  But Ogilvy, who went on to become a famous ad man, at 38, had "no credentials, no clients, and $6000 in the bank" and a below average IQ of 96.

I watched a documentary on Ogilvy a few years ago, and when it got to the bit about his IQ score, it said that Ogilvy had tested his IQ at the end of his career, after he'd retired.  He was expecting to be a genius, but his results showed him to be below average.  He was disappointed for a few days.  But then he realised that he'd actually done quite well for himself to have done so well with such a low IQ.

So you don't think you're as smart as everyone else, you've scored low on an IQ test, you're broke, you don't have a job, and you don't have a great education.  So what?  Other people have been in that position before and created amazing things for the world.  And you can do so too.

About Me

Marita ChengForbes named me a world's top 50 woman in tech & 30 Under 30. I founded Robogals and Aipoly and was Young Australian of the Year 2012. Currently working on robotics company Aubot. I'm the youngest Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and I give speeches around the world.

I tweet @maritacheng and I'm on Facebook.

Subscribe

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Random Articles

  • GEDC Diversity Award

    I was awarded the Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC) Diversity Award for my work with Robogals.  It was sponsored by Airbus.  Here is a photo of...

  • In the news: Entrepreneurship in Australian universities

    My business partner Mark Parncutt was quoted in this article in StartUp Smart about the state of entrepreneurship in Australian universities.  Happy...

  • LinkedIn International Women’s Day

    I did a campaign post for LinkedIn for International Women’s Day about my Covid experience and the women who inspired me through it. Women are...

  • Being your word

    If you tell people you are going to be at X location at X time, people take your word for that. If you’re not there, they decide that next time,...

  • Lifetime goals

    Don't be scared of achieving your lifetime goals.  You can always make up new goals after you've achieved these.

  • ANZ Television Commercial

    Appeared in an epic television commercial with my robot arm!

  • Remo Office Visit

    Remo Giuffré, Founder and Director of TEDxSydney and Founder of General Thinking, and his lovely daughter Lola (an engineering student at the...

  • Over-exposure

    Telling people your plans too early doesn't make you less likely to achieve them.  I know when I tell people what I plan to do the response I get...

  • The Impostor Syndrome

    I first learnt about the impostor syndrome at the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing in 2011.  A Stanford student asked a question...

  • Seek, not given

    I used to think that someone with my character, with my determination, my ambition and my IQ would mean that I would be successful in life because...

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Scroll to Top