read book
You probably just need to work harder, I've known some really stupid people who got engineering degrees and shit just because they worked really hard. Also some cheated at school, there's that.
The inverse is also entirely true, and perhaps the ultimate truth. You can have all of the talent and intelligence in the world and have "BIG IDEAS" that could change the world for the better, but if you aren't given any amount of opportunity due to either your demographic (only applies to white men, sometimes East Asians) or simply belonging to the wrong social class, you're fucked.It's all about finding the right job. You land the right job, shake the right hands, and you'll fall upwards, even if you're the sort of person that considers crayons to be a food group. Bonus points if you're either born into a wealthy family with connections, or you're part of a protected minority group that any corporation would love to put in a nice cushy front-facing job to show how "diverse and tolerant" their company is.