Early Retirement Extreme Forums

YoungAndWise wrote:

Did wrote: Overachieving is overrated.

As one of the kids who earned the "Most Likely to Succeed" award during high school, the son who parents who would gripe about me getting a B instead of an A, I honestly agreed with this sentiment. As I get older, running up achievements for the sake of achievement feels like a vain pursuit to inflate the ego, which kind of worries me as it feels...I don't know. Decadent? For the lack of the better term.

In one of Daniel Pink's books (sorry, can't recall which one), he said that recruiters preferred B students who also did sports or music to A students. The thinking was that A students were all about the grades, but B students were smart enough yet also had a life and showed discipline by being able to manage regular practice with schoolwork.

jennypenny wrote: In one of Daniel Pink's books (sorry, can't recall which one), he said that recruiters preferred B students who also did sports or music to A students. The thinking was that A students were all about the grades, but B students were smart enough yet also had a life and showed discipline by being able to manage regular practice with schoolwork.

Lol. Sounds about right.

Not really. What's wrong with A students who were varsity athletes?

I was a B student (an A student if you weighted my grades on the expanded GPA scale). I was involved in a crap ton of extra-curriculars and never cared about my grades. Many of my A student counterparts would scheme ways to keep their A's, but gaming the system was never interesting to me. I lived for the weekends and the extra-curriculars helped pass the time and kept me busy.

I had really great teachers, on account of my mom being a teacher, and knowing who was good. They always said involvement out did a perfect record, and colleges and universities in my area preferred it, so it worked out well for me.