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Looking Foolish


Looking foolish
The fear of failure and the fear of being wrong are two important fears to overcome in life. It’s almost impossible to accomplish anything of importance without a significant risk of failing and/or being wrong. But I think both of those fears stem from an even deeper concern: looking foolish.

It’s why no one asks a question after a convoluted calculus lecture. The professor ends the lecture with “Any questions?” and no one has a clue what’s going on, but every student is afraid to admit he or she is confused.  Every student is thinking, “What if everyone else understands this and I’m the only one not getting it?” So no one speaks up. No one questions. They would rather all be wrong together than risk appearing foolish trying to uncover the right answer individually.

It’s why companies do things “the way we’ve always done them” just because that’s the way they’ve always done them. Plenty of people will have an idea for a much better solution, but they will keep it quiet just in case it doesn’t work right away. The current process doesn’t work either, but at least they’re all doing it together. There’s no risk of appearing foolish when failing collectively. But trying to do it differently, to do it better and more effectively … and the idea fails? That is terrifying. So, the company will go on with a broken process because everyone is afraid of exploring a better path.

The crowd is almost never correct. To do the right things and live a life of impact and significance, we must go beyond the fear of failure and the fear of being wrong. We must learn to be okay appearing foolish. Sometimes it’s simply the right thing to do.

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