Liz Tran on AQ: The New Intelligence
for a World That Won’t Stop Changing

IQ got us through the Industrial Revolution, EQ got us through the knowledge economy, but neither one is enough for what we’re living through now.

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis welcomes Liz Tran, founder of Inner Genius and author of AQ: A New Kind of Intelligence for a World That’s Always Changing, for a conversation about the intelligence that actually matters in an era of nonstop disruption. Liz Tran spent a decade in venture capital before becoming a leadership coach to CEOs and founders, and it was during that time that she discovered that the most successful people shared exactly one thing in common: they were always changing, always evolving, always pushing themselves into new territory.

That insight became AQ, the Agility Quotient.

The conversation covers:

• What AQ actually is and why it sits alongside IQ and EQ as a standalone intelligence for this moment in history
• The four AQ archetypes — the Astronaut, the Firefighter, the Neurosurgeon, and the Novelist — and what each one reveals about how you handle change, both the kind that happens to you and the kind you choose
• Why a perfect résumé can actually be a red flag, and why people who have taken surprising detours often outperform those who look flawless on paper
• How AI is eroding the IQ advantage and why the driver behind the wheel matters more than the vehicle
• The three stages of AQ: avoidance, fighting, and full AQ — and how to recognize which one you’re in
• Why exposure to discomfort, new people, and unfamiliar situations is the fastest way to grow your agility
• What free solo climber Alex Honnold’s brain scans reveal about the nervous system and what all of us can learn from it

Patrick and Liz Tran also get into FOBO, the arrival fallacy, and why the biggest psychological divide today isn’t between political parties — it’s between the people who resist change and the people who have learned to embrace it.

Meet Liz Tran:

Liz Tran is the founder of Inner Genius and a leadership coach to CEOs and founders of some of the world’s fastest-growing companies, whose clients have collectively raised more than $1 billion in funding. She spent a decade in tech and venture capital before turning to coaching, and her work sits at the intersection of psychology, agility, and high performance.

She is the author of The Karma of Success and her new book, AQ: A New Kind of Intelligence for a World That’s Always Changing, is available now wherever books are sold. Her work has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Bloomberg, Fast Company, and Entrepreneur.

She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter and can be found at liz-tran.com and on Instagram at @liztranwrites.