The Importance of the Adversity Quotient (AQ)

Psychologists agree that, a person’s career success depends on their intelligence quotient, emotional quotient, and adversity quotient. When IQ is held constant, AQ plays an especially pivotal role.

A high AQ leads to first-rate accomplishments, productivity, and creativity. It can help people maintain their health, vitality, and happiness. Research shows that, people with higher AQs recover faster than those with lower AQs following operations. Those with higher AQs also have much better sales performance than those with lower AQs and get promoted faster at the workplace.

High AQs can be cultivated. As it’s best to start from a young age, many educational organizations offer adversity education.

In most tests of AQ, the four main variables examined are control, ownership, reach, and endurance (CORE). ‘Control’ refers to how much control an individual has over the adversity. ‘Ownership’ refers to the reason for the adversity and the willingness of the individual to assume responsibility and take the necessary measures. ‘Reach’ refers to the extent to which the problem affects other areas of the individual’s life, like work and home life. ‘Endurance’ refers to how long the problem and its effects last.

As has been shown repeatedly, in a world filled with adversity, career success, and life achievements are not just a product of IQ and EQ, they also depend on a person’s AQ.