There’s a story my mom used to tell me when I was a little kid. It was about a very wise philosopher that lived a long time ago. This man was admired by the people not only in his village, but by the people in the surrounding villages as well. In fact, many used to travel great distances just to visit him. Visit after visit people would always end up asking him the same question: “How did you gain your great wisdom?”
His response was simple. He would just say “I learned from all the stupid people.” At first, the villagers laughed thinking that the he was kidding. But after a few moments of him keeping a straight face, they realized that he was being serious. They then asked him “But, how?” His response, and the lesson my mom was trying to teach me, has had a huge impact on my life, and can do the same for you. His answer was “I look at what the stupid people do, and make sure I do not do the same.”
I know this seems like common sense, but we all have heard the old saying of common sense is uncommon. And even when it comes to something as simple as this, the saying holds true. This is because we tend to easily identify whether or not what somebody ELSE does is stupid, yet when it comes to our own lives we can be in a similar situation and end up doing the stupid same things. I said “similar situation” above on purpose because the circumstances don’t need to be the same. In fact, they rarely ever will be. But what can be similar is the underlying reason (or lack thereof) behind the stupid person’s action.
Let’s use an example of someone who lost money joining a bad network marketing company to help illustrate my point. Lets name this person Bill. Bill probably didn’t do his due diligence on the company and let the potential profits cloud his judgment. Bill’s friend, Jerry considered this to be stupid and even let Bill know so. But later that week Jerry sees an infomercial on TV on how to make millions. At first he wasn’t sure about it, but after thirty minutes of watching the infomercial he decided “what the heck!” Needless to say, Jerry lost money on the product.
Now the circumstances were different for Bill and Jerry. Bill joined a scam network marketing company, while Jerry tried the get rich quick scheme he bought on TV. But the underlying reason both of them made these stupid decisions were the same: greed. They both let their greed get in the way of their logic and it came back to bite them as a result.
So when the philosopher said “I look at what the stupid people do, and make sure I don’t do the same” I don’t think he meant it only literally, but figuratively as well. Having a passion for self improvement, I’ve used this wisdom a lot in my life. And so can you. Here’s how:
- Analyze somebody you consider stupid. Not in a IQ way, but someone who makes/made poor life choices (see the Smart vs. Intelligent post).
- Figure out what the underlying reasons were/are for why they are stupid (asking them probably isn’t a good idea).
- Try to see if you have done/do anything similar to what they do (remember, the circumstances don’t need to be the same).
- Don’t do it anymore!
The great thing about this self improvement technique is that you are only limited to the amount of people you can analyze. But a quick word of caution: don’t be too quick to decide that you don’t share the same weakness as the person you are analyzing, or else you may just end up like Jerry from the example.
