Associating with those who have achieved something noteworthy

Being intelligent and associating with someone who has achieved something noteworthy in one's work is somewhat like associating with a tall person: sometimes it matters but most of the time not, one can ask the big one to do some work but is it any advantage for the bigger one? Or the bigger one can be too tall to fit in a romm comfortably. In some thinsg size matters but are those things important in life or in social life, propably not, it is just some work to do, work like any other work amd the rest of life is separate.
I do not fit into academical life. At my level of objectivity and intelligence the criterions for good quality work are very much the same as arts' criterions for good artwork: good perceptions, skill, something essential to say, skill in communication, easy to learn, matters in life, etc. So it seems that I would be fitted to some kind of work in arts or teaching of arts. But does it make me any happier than my parents were for a job in science, I doubt that it is the same or not so happy as they.