I'm not a genius, though above average significantly is nice, it's not much good for work. It's true.
Top end jobs are all about personality, and making use of economic leverage. Do yeu think bill gates got so insanely rich by making a good product? Uhm. NO. He got rich because he MARKETED the product he HAD excessively well. Now that he's not really calling top shots anymore, and steeve jobs is latching onto the "everyone else other than the hardcore nerds" community, that's quickly disappearing. Marketing is everything, yeur product can be total crap and thrive.
We've many examples of this.
VHS, superfloppies, HD-DVD's (they came out a few months after normal dvd's... notice how it took us almost a decade to transition though), multistate transistors (we haven't even upgraded computers to these... because of marketing).
That being said, let's think about whot we WANT. People want fame, fortune, and glory! They want a statue of themselves, and to be remembered! They want children to live on in their stead, a legacy, and favoured thoughts when they're departed!
Screw that, I'll be dead, whot good is that crap THEN!? I wanna have fun right now!
Seriously, my life style is simple. I don't need a fancy car. I don't need an expencive luxery house. I don't need 2.5 kids and a legacy. Whot I want, is peace of mind, and the ability to relax, and enjoy myself with someone I care about. If I need to work, then my job of choice will be something I enjoy, and that I can CREATE something with, something that I can show off to friends and family, and be able to say "I made this" with pride as they enjoy it.
I don't need, nor want management. It's a ridiculous place to be, I've even turned down a supervisor position despite that it gave better pay (barely $8.50 instead of $8.00... yeah... that won't cover the psychiatrist bills for having to be a supervisor).
In short, I prefer to create stuff, I don't need to be a scientist, I may LIKE things like particle physics and quantum theory... but to really partake of them, yeu can't really view it as a hobby... it requires years of dedication to even get into the field, and THERE ARE NO PHYSICISTS. They work as lab assistants, or as professors, or whotever... but they aren't hired as physicists. Yeur job market is nil, yeur ability to expand when yeu have a new idea is crap all until yeu finish the last one since yeu can't get funding otherwise, and it will literally take up pretty much yeur entire life. Yes the concepts are fun, but to truly go for it? It's a waste of my time. I have better things to do with my life. I have a thousand things I enjoy I want to partake in, and become good at. Having to blow my ENTIRE life on ONE thing? No. It doesn't work that way for me. For some it can, but not for me.
I need variety, I need freedom, and I need a creative outlet. If I don't have these in my job, I don't want the job.
That being said, most 'white collar' jobs require TOTAL DEDICATION of yeur entire life. They aren't the "9-to-5" run of the mill stuff, they're the "90+ hour work week with no overtime because of salary". These are not positions I want, and most smart people have probably got this figured out.
Doctors, professional athletes, thespians, CEO's, sciences... these are things which chew through yeur life like yeu can't believe. Yeu have to eat and breathe the job. Yeu ARE the job. Very rare do these jobs provide anything short of it.
If yeu are single minded, then yeah, it's great. If not, yeu want to have the freedom to explore many different avenues of entertainment and thought as yeu please.
I can never do these things, they would tear me apart and I'd end up like my parents, worshipping the almighty dollar with no regard for my life otherwise. I would exist solely for the purpose of working, my life would be WORK, I would have no mind of my own, no personality of my own, I would just be a job that defined who I was.
If someone asked me "who are yeu?" I wouldn't have an answer other than my profession.
I can't live like this, and while top end intelligent people may not ALL share this ideal... those who do are likely intelligent enough to make up their own minds, and live their own dreams, not the 'american dream'. Who cares about the american dream? Those without enough imagination to make up their own. I want to live comfortably, and once I have that... I'm pretty much done. I have no incentive to continue. Zero drive to get more. My life is complete as long as my requirements are sated.
Everything else, is an intellectual persuit, which I can get via the net, or other relatively cheap sources. Debating, puzzles, game mechanics, these are things I love to play with. They cost virtually nil to access. Why do I need a million dollars a year? Oh yeah, I don't. All that does it let me but more stuff. Which I wouldn't use. I have no use for a mansion, I'd have no use for the space, it'd be a pain to clean, and I'd have to pay even more to hire a maid to do it for me since otherwise I'd have just wasted all my life cleaning, so whot good did the monies do me?
I view money as whot it really is... a tool to do whot yeu want with yeur life. No monies, can't do it. Yes monies? Then yeu can. If yeu spent yeur entire life working, and never got the chance to DO anything with yeur life other than a job yeu don't enjoy, then all the monies in the world mean NOTHING. It failed the one thing it was supposed to do.
So yeah... those who aren't interested in spending their entire lives working, but are intelligent, will probably notice that and avoid it.
Those who love blowing their entire lives perfecting a single task, to an obsessive point that they WANT their entire life to be that one job? Then they do quite well in those positions with a bit of brains. But having more brains past that point really won't get them any farther, once yeu're up to a certain point, it's all boiled down to social connections, personality, aggressiveness, and marketing. Yeur brains can have minor benefit here, but it's often a tradeoff, more brains means less of these others, which are more important past that point. If yeu don't trade off though, yeu're fine. If yeu do, yeu may actually find yeurself slightly lower on the ladder oddly.
In any case, do whot yeu want to do. Yeur goals are yeur own. Seek them out, and do whot yeu must to achieve it. Don't chastise others for attaining their dreams just because their dream is not yeur own.