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Did you always think that you had to have brains to get rich? Well, the great news is that you don't!

"Your IQ has really no relationship to your wealth. And being very smart does not protect you from getting into financial difficulty," says Jay Zagorsky. Zagorsky is the author of a recent study in the journal "Intelligence" and a research scientist at Ohio State University. The study confirms previous research which has shown that smarter people tend to earn more money, but points out there is a difference between high pay and overall wealth.

This study, done through the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, surveyed 7,403 Americans who have been interviewed at intervals since 1979. The study, based on their 2004 answers, found that, "the average income difference between a person with an IQ score in the normal range (100) and someone in the top two percent of society (130) is currently between 6,000 and 18,500 dollars per year." In other words: in the normal workplace higher intelligence may mean higher salaries but when you look at the intelligence of those who have become seriously wealthy, there is no correlation between intelligence and wealth! That is excellent news for all of us who want to be wealthy.

The study also showed that intelligent people stated that they also got themselves into financial difficulties but the data is unable to explain why. My belief is that intelligent people are still motivated to the same degree as everyone else by the emotions of fear and greed which can often cloud a person's good judgment leading to financial difficulties.

But the most interesting point that Zagorsky makes is, "When it came to total wealth . . . , people of below average and average intelligence did just fine when compared to the super-intelligent." But why aren't very intelligent people always wealthy? Zagorsky points out that you only have to look in the parking lots of universities to see that intelligence and wealth are not necessarily linked. He says, "Professors tend to be very smart people, but if you look at university parking lots, you don't see a lot of Rolls Royces, Porsches or other very expensive cars. Instead you see a lot of old, low-value vehicles."

So, there is obviously a lot more to being wealthy than having a high intelligence level. You will be familiar with Napoleon Hill's classic book "Think and Grow Rich" written in the 1950's and based on his research into very wealthy men. You are probably also familiar with Wallace D Wattles' book "The Science of Getting Rich" written in the 1910s. You might even have read both books but still can't make the connection between how you, personally, can get rich by following the principles in the books.

One of the underlying principles is to begin today to replace what you don't want by attracting what you do want. But how do you do that? How exactly does this law of attraction work? Napoleon Hill said, "What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve." And that encapsulates the whole principle of the law of attraction.

There are many organizations offering courses on how to get the law of attraction working in your life, but whatever course you may choose, you must remember that your results ultimately depend on you and the effort you put in to making the law of attraction work. However, remember that your achieving success in life is not based on how intelligent you are, but on how you use that intelligence to mimic the people who are already very successful. Learn the secrets from the masters and prosper!