Smarter People - Easiest way to improve!

I know most of you will agree with this statement: “The easiest way to improve myself is by surrounding myself with smarter people.” So do I. They are the living walking reservoirs of the knowledge and experience. A book may tell you all but only the experience would tell you how to go about it and what mistakes one tends to make.
The smart guy can observe you and point out everything in you. He can become your source of knowledge and a role model.
But what if there aren’t any smart people around. No don’t try telling me that it means that you are the smartest guy around, so you must enjoy the fact. Nor do I want to hear you telling that you let the lesser people improve. I know where I stand in the world and that is – nowhere. Another argument I have thought of this that every person you meet is superior to you in some way and you ought to learn from him. But I can’t wait to find out in what sense he is superior to me and I want a smarter person. Smarter than me in a broad sense. Superior to me, but not in one way but many ways.
So what’s the solution to this? I create smarter people? No that sounds absurd. If could create smart people that me than that would still mean that I am smarter than them. The simple and acceptable fact is that there must be smarter people around me. I mean there have to be. But right now I haven’t been able to find any.
Now only way left is the conventional way: learning from books, people’s advice, my own experiences and others. But these all are not easy and they do take in a lot of time!
In the meantime I should try to find out smarter people….stay with them and hence , improve myself easily!