Quotient Types: The AQ, EQ, IQ, OQ, UQ (and Sometimes YQ)

Reach for the stars

CNN ran a story honoring the anniversary of Notorious B.I.G.’s death. Of course, the comment-section quickly shot off on several tangents.

One comment mentioned an interesting term I’d never heard before — The AQ, or Adversity Quotient.

Biggie Small’s sizable AQ was being compared to the classic determinants of successful and superior accomplishment that everyone is familiar with — The IQ, Intelligence Quotient, and The EQ, Emotional Quotient.

The generally agreed-upon theory, as summarized by the commenter, is that a high IQ is worthless if you have a low EQ. In other words, a genius who can’t relate well to others can’t make the most of his intelligence.

On the other hand AQ, the “Adversity Quotient,” predicts “how well one withstands adversity and his ability to triumph over it.”

Dr. Paul Stoltz’ writes, “In fact, AQ is a better index in achieving success than IQ, education or even social skills (EQ).”

According to Stoltz, “AQ is the most scientifically robust and widely used method in the world for measuring and strengthening human resilience. Top leaders, industry-leading…