How Smart People Get In Their Own Way

One of the things I’ve been continually blown away by when I meet really successful people, and I’ve shared this on other episodes of this podcast, is that I’m continually amazed how simple, how average they are in so many ways, and how one of the deciding characteristics of success seems to be that they were simply too stupid to quit. And you can go pretty far in life if you’re just too stupid to quit despite the odds, despite how hard things go get, and if you just keep showing up consistently doing the work, you can realize a lot of success without necessarily being a hyper skilled individual or above the bell curve in terms of intelligence or charisma or whatever the attribute is that you think you must have. Well, the other side of this I was thinking about is that you must be too stupid to quit. You got to keep going with the thing despite the odds. But the other side of this, I think the thing that stops so many people from getting to that point where they could even start having the difficulties that come along with doing the thing, is that most people, and you might be one of them, are too smart to start. You’re too smart for your own good. I did a video on this a while back on YouTube called people dumber than you are making millions. And one of the core reasons for this is that dumb people, they tend to overestimate their likelihood of success.

They tend to not live inside of their own head and stop themselves from taking the actions that would yield potential results. They don’t know any better. They don’t realize that the odds are so stacked against them that they would be better off going and pursuing some other course of action. And so they try the thing, and because they are dumb enough to start and they’re too dumb to quit, they just keep doing it. And eventually they realize success. Whereas very smart people, and I fall into this category, when I say smart, I’m not talking about intelligence. I’m talking about people who live inside their heads, like I did for a long time. And they talk themselves out of taking action.

They would look at the thing and say, here’s all the things that can go wrong. The analysis paralysis led to never actually executing. And at the end of the day, the universe, it doesn’t respond to how you feel. It doesn’t respond to how you think or what you plan. It only responds to what you do. And if you’re too smart to start, then it doesn’t matter if you had the greatest plan in the world or the greatest, you know, skill base or the greatest resources. If you never actually applied them. You’re never going to yield results.

And so we have to figure out how, if we’re, if you’re in that boat of being too smart to start because you can so clearly see all the things that can go wrong, well, how do you get outside of own way? That’s the key. That’s the trick here. If you’re smart enough to see all the things that can go wrong, then you have to be able to be smart enough to figure out how can I circumnavigate my own proclivities for procrastination, we’ll call it. That’s a fun sentence. Proclivities for procrastination. We should be an author or something, right? Okay, so if you are too smart to start, here’s another, here’s another idea that might serve you to understand why you are this way. See, smart people, it’s a survival technique. If you can see all the things that can go wrong, then you can plan, you can adjust accordingly, and you can avoid the things that could lead to existential threat and kill you.

Right? Like a tiger in the woods. And so being smart has a lot of evolutionary adaptation. It’s a good thing to be smart, but in the current world that we live in, the downside threat of trying the thing and failing is not existential. In a lot of cases. If you go for that business opportunity, if you go for that thing that you want, that dream that you have, the likelihood if you fail is that it’s not gonna end in your death. Probably not. There’s enough infrastructure and safety net in the current societal system that you’ll probably be okay and you’ll probably get another chance to swing the bat. And so, recognizing that failures like these days, there’s an asymmetric risk reward bell curve or long tail that we can take advantage of.

We are in a better situation if we just keep swinging the bat and going for those outsized opportunities. Because the downside risk is just, it’s capped. You’re not going to die generally, depending on what you’re thinking about doing. And so I found that to be very, very helpful. And it took me actually, you know, having to hit rock bottom, having to hit effectively. Okay, if I was to go for my dreams and I was to try this thing, what’s the worst that would happen? Is like, oh, I might find myself homeless and living on the street. Well, I kind of experienced that when I was living in the back of the van in Oakland, where the life just kind of fell out from underneath of me and from that place, I was like, oh, my life fell apart and I wasn’t going for my dreams. I wasn’t going for that thing that I had presumed was risky, and I still ended up here.

So what’s the worst that can happen if I go for it and I fail? Well, I can’t do any worse than this. So rock bottom for me was a blessing in that way. Hopefully you don’t have to get to that place of, like, your life falling apart for you to realize you might as well go for your dreams because the downside is, you know, is what it is. And you can realize, you can, you can find yourself in that rock bottom place whether you go for your dreams or not, totally outside your control. If you’re going that w two route and your employer lays, lays you off, or, you know, something existential happens in your life where suddenly you can’t pay your mortgage, right? And life can fall apart very, very quickly. So it might as well fall apart on your terms, going for your dreams. You might as well if you’re going to take the risk of living, and the risk of living is that we will all get to the end of this road and we will die at some point. Like, that’s the risk of living is you might as well live it on your terms while you can and try to maximize the return on your life in the meantime.

And the only way that you can do that is by pursuing your dreams, pursuing that opportunity, getting outside of your own way, and stop being too smart to start and just take action. So that’s my message for you today. I hope this brings you a little bit of value and I will catch you in the next episode. But until then, stay hyper focused, my friends.

One of the things I’ve been continually blown away by when I meet really successful people, and I’ve shared this on other episodes of this podcast, is that I’m continually amazed how simple, how average they are in so many ways, and how one of the deciding characteristics of success seems to be that they were simply too stupid to quit. And you can go pretty far in life if you’re just too stupid to quit despite the odds, despite how hard things go get, and if you just keep showing up consistently doing the work, you can realize a lot of success without necessarily being a hyper skilled individual or above the bell curve in terms of intelligence or charisma or whatever the attribute is that you think you must have. Well, the other side of this I was thinking about is that you must be too stupid to quit. You got to keep going with the thing despite the odds. But the other side of this, I think the thing that stops so many people from getting to that point where they could even start having the difficulties that come along with doing the thing, is that most people, and you might be one of them, are too smart to start. You’re too smart for your own good. I did a video on this a while back on YouTube called people dumber than you are making millions. And one of the core reasons for this is that dumb people, they tend to overestimate their likelihood of success.

They tend to not live inside of their own head and stop themselves from taking the actions that would yield potential results. They don’t know any better. They don’t realize that the odds are so stacked against them that they would be better off going and pursuing some other course of action. And so they try the thing, and because they are dumb enough to start and they’re too dumb to quit, they just keep doing it. And eventually they realize success. Whereas very smart people, and I fall into this category, when I say smart, I’m not talking about intelligence. I’m talking about people who live inside their heads, like I did for a long time. And they talk themselves out of taking action.

They would look at the thing and say, here’s all the things that can go wrong. The analysis paralysis led to never actually executing. And at the end of the day, the universe, it doesn’t respond to how you feel. It doesn’t respond to how you think or what you plan. It only responds to what you do. And if you’re too smart to start, then it doesn’t matter if you had the greatest plan in the world or the greatest, you know, skill base or the greatest resources. If you never actually applied them. You’re never going to yield results.

And so we have to figure out how, if we’re, if you’re in that boat of being too smart to start because you can so clearly see all the things that can go wrong, well, how do you get outside of own way? That’s the key. That’s the trick here. If you’re smart enough to see all the things that can go wrong, then you have to be able to be smart enough to figure out how can I circumnavigate my own proclivities for procrastination, we’ll call it. That’s a fun sentence. Proclivities for procrastination. We should be an author or something, right? Okay, so if you are too smart to start, here’s another, here’s another idea that might serve you to understand why you are this way. See, smart people, it’s a survival technique. If you can see all the things that can go wrong, then you can plan, you can adjust accordingly, and you can avoid the things that could lead to existential threat and kill you.

Right? Like a tiger in the woods. And so being smart has a lot of evolutionary adaptation. It’s a good thing to be smart, but in the current world that we live in, the downside threat of trying the thing and failing is not existential. In a lot of cases. If you go for that business opportunity, if you go for that thing that you want, that dream that you have, the likelihood if you fail is that it’s not gonna end in your death. Probably not. There’s enough infrastructure and safety net in the current societal system that you’ll probably be okay and you’ll probably get another chance to swing the bat. And so, recognizing that failures like these days, there’s an asymmetric risk reward bell curve or long tail that we can take advantage of.

We are in a better situation if we just keep swinging the bat and going for those outsized opportunities. Because the downside risk is just, it’s capped. You’re not going to die generally, depending on what you’re thinking about doing. And so I found that to be very, very helpful. And it took me actually, you know, having to hit rock bottom, having to hit effectively. Okay, if I was to go for my dreams and I was to try this thing, what’s the worst that would happen? Is like, oh, I might find myself homeless and living on the street. Well, I kind of experienced that when I was living in the back of the van in Oakland, where the life just kind of fell out from underneath of me and from that place, I was like, oh, my life fell apart and I wasn’t going for my dreams. I wasn’t going for that thing that I had presumed was risky, and I still ended up here.

So what’s the worst that can happen if I go for it and I fail? Well, I can’t do any worse than this. So rock bottom for me was a blessing in that way. Hopefully you don’t have to get to that place of, like, your life falling apart for you to realize you might as well go for your dreams because the downside is, you know, is what it is. And you can realize, you can, you can find yourself in that rock bottom place whether you go for your dreams or not, totally outside your control. If you’re going that w two route and your employer lays, lays you off, or, you know, something existential happens in your life where suddenly you can’t pay your mortgage, right? And life can fall apart very, very quickly. So it might as well fall apart on your terms, going for your dreams. You might as well if you’re going to take the risk of living, and the risk of living is that we will all get to the end of this road and we will die at some point. Like, that’s the risk of living is you might as well live it on your terms while you can and try to maximize the return on your life in the meantime.

And the only way that you can do that is by pursuing your dreams, pursuing that opportunity, getting outside of your own way, and stop being too smart to start and just take action. So that’s my message for you today. I hope this brings you a little bit of value and I will catch you in the next episode. But until then, stay hyper focused, my friends.