When Being ‘Smart’ Isn’t Enough: Rethinking Success as a PhD

Is Being ‘Smart’ Taking You Where You Want to Go?

Author

Macarena Fritz
October 06, 2025

At some point in my life as a scientist, I felt that my identity was built around being smart:
Smart enough to get a PhD….
Smart enough to publish in high-impact journals…..
Smart enough to deserve the next contract.

I thought ’brains’ would be my ticket to safety (both personal and financial)
Turns out, just thinking about excelling in ‘smart’ kept me stuck… and overworked.

I got the degree, the publications — and still needed to give almost my entire time to my job, while getting a salary just enough to survive.
That’s when I realized:

Smart isn’t the goal. Free is.

My Personal Transformation

When I made that shift, I stopped analyzing experiments as my exclusive job and started analyzing my finances, because it’s just as important.

I built a very simple model: track inflows and expenses, focused savings and investing.

Within the 5 years of my PhD, I turned my research skills into finding and buying assets…. while working at the lab. The biggest asset I bought just before graduating, was a piece of land which gave me a 10% yearly profit that brought in an extra USD$600/month, completely separate from my PhD stipend. That was the start towards my freedom.

This is no magic. Just the same scientific process — applied to income.

That’s the real experiment:
Can you use the brain that earned your PhD … to buy your freedom?

Shift the Belief!!!

Academia teaches you to prove your intelligence. Freedom asks you to build ownership and control over your finances. It’s important to give some of your time do so. And it doesn’t mean leaving your career.

You don’t need another diploma or paper for this. You need a system that works while you rest.

Your PhD Is an Asset — If you use it differently.

You just have to redirect that energy from proving your intelligence… to designing your freedom plan.

You can’t publish your way to financial freedom — but you can build your way there.

You don’t have to prove you’re smart!

You’ve already done the hardest part. Now it’s time to build something that pays you back.

Use your PhD like capital — invest it in yourself, your skills, and your freedom.

Until next time,

The Financially Independent PhD