<p>In order to get into medical school, you do need high grades in college.</p>
<p>And in order to get through medical school (and residency), you do have to work very, very hard. But you really don’t have to be a genius. Clinical medicine requires you to master a huge volume of very technical knowledge, and to be able to apply it correctly and confidently, sometimes under pressure. But it usually doesn’t require the kind of original, innovative thinking that I associate with genius. An emergency physician, for example, isn’t really expected–or even encouraged–to think up a new way of dealing with a patient who’s having an anaphylactic reaction to a bee sting. An emergency physician is expected to assess the problem and initiate the proper treatment, and to do so quickly and correctly.</p>
<p>If you can work very hard, and you can master the clinical skills and the body of knowledge a doctor is supposed to have, and you can work quickly under pressure without second-guessing yourself, you might have what it takes to be a doctor.</p>