We’ve all heard it: “If you’re the smartest person in the room, find a new room.”

There are two ways to respond.

The Servant Learner

Leave. Find a smarter room and keep learning.

That’s valuable, but it’s largely a short-term strategy. You build relationships around what you can learn next, and your network can become limited to people who fill the gaps in your own knowledge.

The Servant Leader

Stay—and build the room.

Identify who needs information, feedback, mentorship, or a challenge. Invest in them. Connect people. Help them develop their strengths.

The payoff takes longer, but the network becomes multifaceted—people you learn from, people you’ve mentored, people who challenge you, and people with expertise completely different from your own.

Eventually, you walk into the room and realize you’re no longer the smartest person there.

That’s the goal.

Surround yourself with people with more potential, then help them become smarter than you.

The short-term move is finding a better room. The long-term move is building a better network.