A really beautiful piece. I think, for starters that intelligence should be measured by one's ability to get what they want out of life.
By doing this, we'll find that many people aren't really after monetary rewards, as you've pointed out.
Money is man's creation, it's not as important or a great measure of most meaningful things, let alone the smarts or intelligence of a person.
People can bend their specialties in whatever ways that best serves them. What most people consider intelligence is just exposure to knowledge, especially one that most people aren't exposed to.
Right, getting what we want out of life is also one of the best measurements on whether we've been successful in life or not. And you're very right on that, money is a means to an end for the majority of people, nobody really cares about pieces of paper or numbers on a screen if it didn't directly translate to the options they have against life's uncertainties.
Thanks for stopping by :)