Successful intelligence is defined in terms of the ability to achieve success in life in terms of one's
personal standards, within one's sociocultural context. The field of intelligence has at times
tended to put the cart before the horse, defining the construct conceptually on the basis of how it is
operationalized rather than vice versa. This practice has resulted in tests that stress the academic aspect
of intelligence, or intelligence relevant only to the classroom, which is not surprising given the origins
of modern intelligence testing in the work of Binet and Simon (1916) in designing an instrument that
would distinguish children who would succeed from those who would fail in school. But the
construct of intelligence needs to serve a broader purpose, accounting for the bases of success in all
areas of one's life.