When it comes to success, the formula for achieving it seems to be as varied as it gets. All it takes is a quick search online and you will be inundated with rules, tips, tricks, steps, and keys to making it big in the world. Some will speak of hard work, determination, and passion, while others boast of dumb luck and pure chance.

A recent study by Jonathan Wai, research scientist at Duke University, announces yet another opinion on this subject. Research suggests that “the top one percent in wealth highly overlaps with the top one percent in brains” which would imply that the key to making it big is in how intelligent one is.

The study throws out some interesting statistics. For example, did you realize that “about 45 percent of billionaires are in the top one percent of cognitive ability”? Additionally, of all the Fortune 500 CEOs, nearly 40% are in the top one percent of brains. While this may be completely true, and let’s assume that it is, this accounts for less than half of the richest and most successful people around. What about the rest of them?

Another flaw in the study was the way that these statistics were gathered. Apparently, “cognitive ability” was measured largely on attendance to elite colleges. The problem with this, though, is that everyone knows that being smart isn’t the only way into the door of a top Ivy League school. Other factors, such as wealth, sports abilities, and family connections can be just as persuasive to admissions reps. And what of the billionaires that chose not to finish college? Minds like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, for example. Where do they compute in this billionaire brain power study?

But, before you throw your hands in the air in frustration, and say a great big good fucking bye to your dreams, let’s talk about another study. This one, conducted by Ohio State University, had very different results. While the findings did show that intelligent people and those with high IQs often earned a relatively good income, this elite population didn’t score any higher on managing their finances or on building substantial wealth than the rest of the population. In fact, research scientist Jay Zagorsky states “People don’t become rich just because the are smart… and being smart does not protect you from getting into financial difficulty.”

The biggest finding of the survey, though, was in the percentage of very smart people who maintained their money long term. “How could high-IQ people, on average, earn higher incomes but still not have more wealth than others?” Maybe it is because those with higher IQs had a greater percentage of maxed out credit cards than less “intelligent” study participants, or perhaps it’s because the number of bankruptcy filings and missed bill payments rose with IQ as well. Sounds like even the smartest people around make some dumb choices with their money.

In his closing statements, Zagorsky speaks of the faculty parking lots of the nation’s best universities as a prime example to prove his findings. “Professors tend to be very smart people,” he says, “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…Intelligence is not a factor for explaining wealth..” His advice? “Those with low intelligence should not believe they are handicapped, and those with high intelligence should not believe they have an advantage.”

So, while I will admit that being intelligent…brilliant even…will likely increase your chances of earning a good income to some degree, I am certainly calling bullshit that it is required for success and wealth. And for the record, billionaires probably aren’t “just smarter than everyone else.”