I think EI is a bit of a misnomer, and it should be called Emotional wisdom or something like that. IQ is like being born rich. It’s nice to have and it can be used to benefit other people a lot but on the flip side it can be used for bad things to. It doesn’t really warrant any respect by itself because you don’t have to work for it, and you can’t change it.
Your level of EQ is like the state of the house you are building, and IQ is like one of the tools you can use to build that house or any other number of useful metaphorical buildings. Or you could just be sitting on the ground and whacking the dirt with the backside of your expensive Makita. However, if you finish your house, you can be proud because you know used all your tools, all your knowledge, hard work and years of self-reflection to build something that is useful and will last and will benefit others a lot.
And much like expensive power tools your intelligence degrades over time, so there is no better time to use your intelligence, along with all the other tools in your arsenal to build your house than right now.