If You’re So Smart…Why Aren’t You Where You Want to Be?
The Amplified Impact Podcast
November 21st, 2023
In my upcoming video and newsletter article, I’m diving into a fascinating topic…why seemingly less intelligent folks make millions while smart ones sometimes struggle?
Here’s the gist: smarter people tend to overthink, foresee obstacles, and talk ourselves out of action.
Meanwhile, the ‘dumb dumbs’ just dive in.
The truth? Worst-case scenarios rarely happen.
Spending less time on ‘what could go wrong’ and more on ‘what could go right’ is key.
So, maybe it’s time to embrace a little ‘dumb’ mindset to overcome our own barriers to success.
TWEETABLE QUOTE:
“Smart people struggle with achieving their greatness more than dumb people because they think themselves out of taking action. The dumb dumb doesn’t know any better, so they just do it.” – Anthony Vicino
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Episode Transcript:
Anthony Vicino:
I’m working on a video right now. It’s gonna come out in the next week, and it will be an article that will go out in the hyper focused entrepreneur newsletter as well. But I really love this topic. I’ve been thinking about it, been writing about it for the last couple of mornings. It’s why people who are dumber than you are making millions. And I just, I love this topic because it opens up this cornucopia of different ways that we can attack this problem. And the problem fundamentally is, if you are so smart, why are you not rich, why are you not wealthy? And really unpacking all the reasons that lead us to getting in our own way, getting inside of our own head. And I am guilty of having been there.
Anthony Vicino:
I think of myself as being very smart. I hold intelligence as a value very high in my world. And when I was young, it was a core part of my identity. And anything that tried to subvert that or undermine it in any kind of way did not sit well with me. I had a lot of ego around this, but also because I think of myself as being intelligent. The fact that I was struggling to make money meant that I had to look hard in the mirror and accept one of two possibilities. Either I’m not as smart as I think I am, or there’s something else. And the truth was, the something else was that I just wasn’t doing the work.
Anthony Vicino:
I was lying to myself in a lot of ways and convincing myself that I was doing the work, but I really wasn’t. And the biggest thing that I think holding smart people back, and if you were listening to this, you are probably a smart person because no, dumb Dumb is listening to this podcast. Sorry, I pulled the audience. Everybody came back and they’re all like, no, I ain’t a dumb dumb. And I agree, you ain’t. So if you’re listening to this, you are smart, you are intelligent. So the question becomes, why is it that you are not where you want to be? What’s holding you back from accomplishing your dreams? And one of the things I think this has nothing to do with money. This podcast actually has nothing to do with the topic of money.
Anthony Vicino:
It has everything to do with accomplishing your great, like achieving your greatness, moving towards your greatness. And I think smart people struggle with this more than dumb people. The reason for this, and like dumb smart, it’s not an IQ thing. It’s just I’m throwing these out here as broad categorizations. Right. The thing about smart people is you have way more imagination, way more creativity. You have the ability to future cast, to think through scenarios, and to problem solve, and to plan and all these things. You can see the future so much more clearly.
Anthony Vicino:
You can see the variables, all the different options, you can see the probabilities of success and failure before you, and you’re great at imagining all the things that could go wrong, and that can be an attribute if you plan accordingly and then you move forward. But the problem is, because you’re so good about thinking through all of this, you are woefully aware, more so than the dumb dumb, that things are probably not going to work out, that the cards are stacked against you, that your probability of success is low, and therefore, smart people tend to think themselves out of taking action, whereas the dumb dumb is like, they don’t know any better, so they just do it. And here’s the thing, is that you can’t win the game unless you’re in the arena. The dumb dumb doesn’t know. They shouldn’t even bother. So they go in, and more often than not, they win, is the smart people. They’re like, there’s no point, and they don’t go, they don’t show up, they have the perfect plan, they keep it on the shelf, they sit on the couch, they don’t do the work. What’s the point? You know that it’s just going to be a waste of effort and time, because you look at the ODs of success and you know it’s not good.
Anthony Vicino:
But the truth is, we spend so much of our time thinking about worst case scenarios. Like this is something that humans are great at. We’re great at thinking about worst case scenarios, and it dominates a large part of our attention. Our cognitive capacity is put towards what could go wrong and all the horrible ways that things could fall apart. But the truth is, worst case scenario very, very rarely plays out. Very rarely, because it is by definition, the worst case scenario. And in that case, when that does happen, you’re worrying about it, you’re planning for it doesn’t matter. What makes it worst case scenario is that all of your plans and everything, all the best laid plans of mice and men, go astray.
Anthony Vicino:
It doesn’t matter. That’s what makes it the worst case scenario. And so you might as well spend zero time thinking about that in the first place and more time thinking about things that could go well. Because especially in the modern society that we get to call home now, the number of things that can kill you if they go wrong is very, very few compared to our ancestors living out on the savannah, if they got it wrong, they could break a bone and die. They could get eaten by an animal and die. They could eat something bad and die. So it was very good for them to think worst case scenario about all things and always be fixated on that, because if something goes wrong, they probably die. Something goes wrong, you’re probably not going to die.
Anthony Vicino:
You might get socially ostracized, you might get laughed at, you might lose some money, all these things, but you’re probably not going to die. And that means that the downside to failure is capped, whereas the upside to success is practically unlimited. And so if you’re smart and you’re really thinking through the risk reward spectrum, you would realize you should take the risk, you should take the action, you should get in the arena, because worst case scenario, you lose. But you can just go back in the next day and try again. You do that on a long enough time frame, and you’ll succeed. And that’s why the dumb dumb succeed. Because even after they go in there and they lose, they get their ass kicked, they come back, they don’t learn their lesson, so they just keep coming back. So if you’re smart, I don’t know, maybe try and dumb it down a little bit.
Anthony Vicino:
That’s what I think about a lot right now, because sometimes I think I get more in my own way. Like, we limit our success more than reality itself, and that’s just the truth of the matter. So hope this brings you a little bit of value, you smart little cookie. Thanks for being here, as always. I appreciate you guys. I’ll catch you back around these parts tomorrow, but until then, stay hyper focused, my friends.
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