Actually, Einstein's IQ was far above average... I have read estimates that it was in the 160+ range, however, as the following article states, IQ tests measure thinking speed as a factor, and although Einstein may have thought slowly, he had all the time in the world and that raised his "effective IQ" to 200.
http://www.geocities.com/einstein_library/iq.htm
Check out this link as well:
http://home8.swipnet.se/~w-80790/Index.htm
Anyway, the point of my original statement (IQ is trumped by work ethic) still stands.
This is a really interesting article, but it is long so I will summarize it if you don't care to read all of it:
http://www.eskimo.com/~miyaguch/grady/emptypromise.html
Basically, it says that yes, there are IQ differences between 100 and 130, but the effective difference between 130 and 160 is much less than 100 and 130. If you have someone with an IQ of 130 and a ton of motivation, he or she will almost always surpass a slacker with an IQ of 160 in terms of "real world success".
One snippet from the article:
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The four socially and personally most important most important threshold regions on the IQ scale are those that differentiate with high probability between persons who, because of their level of general mental ability, can or cannot attend a regular school (about IQ 50), can or cannot master the traditional subject matter of elementary school (about IQ 75), can or cannot succeed in the academic or college preparatory curriculum through high school (about IQ 105), can or cannot graduate from an accredited four-year college with grades that would qualify for admission to a professional or graduate school (about IQ 115). beyond this, the IQ level becomes relatively unimportant in terms of ordinary occupational aspirations and criteria of success. That is not to say that there are not real differences between the intellectual capabilities represented by IQs of 115 and 150 or even between IQs of 150 and 180. But IQ differences in this upper part of the scale have far less personal implications than the thresholds just described and are generally of lesser importance for success in the popular sense than are certain traits of personality and character.
The social implications of exceptionally high ability and its interaction with the other factors that make for unusual achievements are considerably greater than the personal implications. The quality of a society's culture is highly determined by the very small fraction of its population that is most exceptionally endowed. The growth of civilization, the development of written language and of mathematics, the great religious and philosophic insights, scientific discoveries, practical inventions, industrial developments, advancements in legal and political systems, and the world's masterpieces of literature, architecture, music and painting, it seems safe to say, are attributable to a rare small proportion of the human population throughout history who undoubtedly possessed, in addition to other important qualities of talent, energy, and imagination, a high level of the essential mental ability measured by tests of intelligence."
