
The Power of Starting Something Stupid
How to Crush Fear, Make Dreams Happen, and Live Without Regret
Want to make great things happen? Be willing to be a little stupid. Smart stupid that is. I was midway through this book when we decided to start something stupid—acquiring a church and its 5-acre campus here in Ojai. Thank you, Richie, for the inspiration and wisdom. Big Ideas we explore include Stupid as the new smart (vs. just plain stupid), the stupid equation, your top 3 excuses, living in permanent beta mode, egonomics, and the authentic you.
Big Ideas
- Stupid as the New SmartHow’s your stupid?
- The Stupid EquationFuture regret = today’s imperative.
- Top 3 ExcusesTime, experience, money. Leap!
- Live in Permanent BetaDay 1.
- Ego Within the Healthy Bounds of HumilityConfidence + humility = good.
- The Authentic YouIs you at your best.
“Behind great success lies a common denominator: stupid.
After conducting hundreds of personal interviews, drawing from academic cases, and building on extensive study of famous and everyday people alike, a surprising trend emerged. Successful people, throughout history and today, don’t avoid stupid, they lean into it . . . in a smart way.”
~ Richie Norton from The Power of Starting Something Stupid
Want to make great things happen? Be willing to be a little stupid.
Smart stupid that is.
I got this book years ago on Kindle and Alexandra randomly started reading it and then told me I should read it. I’m glad I did.
In fact, this is the book I was midway through when we decided to start something stupid—acquiring a church and its 5-acre campus here in Ojai. Thank you, Richie, for the inspiration and wisdom.
If you’re looking to lean into a dream you may have pressed pause on I think you’ll dig this book. (For some reason, it seems to be out of print, but you can get the Kindle and used copies of the book here.)
For now, let’s jump in and explore a few of my favorite Big Ideas!
Stupid as the New Smart
“Maybe the smartest people in the world know something we don’t. Maybe they know that in order to be smart, in order to make significant contributions to the world, and in order to spur significant changes in their own lives, they sometimes have to act on ideas that others might initially perceive as stupid.
The traditional idea of stupidity is as old as time. Pick up any dictionary, and it will offer some derivative of the definition, ‘lacking intelligence and common sense.’ This type of stupidity is what I call unhealthy stupid. It is dangerous, and clearly not the kind of stupid you want to embrace. Unhealthy stupid indicates that a thing or idea is inherently faulty, meaning that the stupidity is a permanently ingrained and inseparable element.
Stupid as the New Smart, on the other hand, is healthy and should be sought after and embraced. Stupid as the New Smart is that pressing thought that just won’t go away. That nagging hunch, that golden idea, that lofty dream, that if it weren’t so seemingly ‘stupid,’ might actually have the chance to become something truly significant—in your own life, and quite possible, in the world at large.”
Let’s start by differentiating unhealthy stupid and Stupid as the New Smart.
Unhealthy stupid is just what it sounds like. We want to stay away from it.
Then there’s Stupid as the New Smart.
You know that idea you’ve had for a long time that just won’t go away?
That lofty dream that tickles your soul?
That thing you’d do if you didn’t have that voice in your head telling you it was a little foolish?
Yah.
THAT idea.
Learning how to lean into the power of THAT kind of “stupid” is what this book is all about.
Stupid as the New Smart infers that while an idea may appear to be inherently faulty, the idea is, in reality, sound and in your best interest to pursue.
How much of human life is lost in waiting!
The Stupid Equation
“Here’s the deal: If you’re scared of choosing the wrong idea to start, you’re going to keep yourself from starting altogether. And on the flip side, if you try to start allof your stupid ideas at once, you’re bound to waste time, energy, and money (and go completely loco in the process). …
You’ve got to be able to cut straight through all the chaos and confusion in order to pinpoint where to begin. Start by familiarizing yourself with what I’ve termed ‘The Stupid Equation.’ FUTURE REGRET = TODAY’S IMPERATIVE
Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could travel into the future, see where you messed up, and then go back in time to rearrange things in order to make your future better? You can. If you can foresee regret, you can mindtravel to the future. If you can train yourself to mindtravel effectively, you can intentionally affect your future by doing something about it today.”
Want to know where to start?
Use the Stupid Equation: Future Regret = Today’s Imperative.
Here’s a quick take on how Richie walks us through the exercise.
Take a few minutes and make a list of all the things you’ve dreamt of doing—those ideas that have danced in your mind that you’ve passed on because you didn’t think you had the time or money or expertise or whatever.
What are they? You can have a hundreds things or a handful or just one. But come up with a list.
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
Alright, now fast forward to your 80th birthday.
Pull out that list. Look at it as you realize that you didn’t wind up doing *anything* on that list.
Some of the things you find funny you ever mentioned, others you’re a little bummed you didn’t get to and some you have deep regret for not getting to.
You might regret not doing a bunch of things but what three things do you think you would *really* regret not doing?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
Now, prioritize these few things from the most important to the least important.
Bingo.
You now have your Stupid Smart ideas.
(What’s your favorite one? Ready to rock it and tap into the power of starting something stupid?)
I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive nonexistent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey—now.
Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.
Top 3 Excuses
“The three most common excuses I hear in my consulting practice for postponing the initiation of stupid ideas are:
1. I don’t have enough time. 2. I don’t have enough education or experience. 3. I don’t have enough money.
Here is the cold, hard fact of the matter. No matter how hard you work, no matter how much you study, no matter how much money you earn and tuck away, no matter (insert your favorite excuse here), there is still no guarantee that they stars will eventually align in the way you’re waiting for them to. And for most of us, it’s actually highly improbably they ever will.”
The big three excuses for why we postpone our dreams:
Not enough time. Not enough experience. Not enough money.
For me, they all boil down into one big fat excuse (read with a whiny voice): “I’m not ready.”
Bottom line is this: We will NEVER feel totally ready.
EVER.
Richie describes the three excuses as the time, education (experience) money gap—the TEM Gap for short.
His wisdom in this section is part of what inspired me to lean into my own stupid little idea to buy a church’s 5-acre campus in Ojai.
I had always wanted to create an offline Oasis. But it was always at some point in the future. You know, when I was “ready” and had more time, experience and money.
Well, what was really weird for me as I leaned into the smart-stupid idea of buying the campus was that the moment I leaned in and went for it, it was *really* (!!) easy.
Joseph Campbell once said, “When you get to a chasm, jump! It’s not as wide as you think.”
That’s EXACTLY what I felt when I stared at the (apparent) chasm that was acquiring the church.
Noting the power of starting something stupid and propelled by a purpose beyond myself, I jumped. And I discovered that the chasm was about as wide as a sidewalk crack.
It’s funny because in the same week that we decided to get the church I did my first Spartan Race. I almost didn’t make it to the starting line because of the ol’ TEM Gap.
My primary obstacle? The story I was telling myself that I was too busy to train, etc. etc.
But, thankfully, I decided to do it. And… The race was EASY.
Another sidewalk crack that initially looked like a giant chasm.
As my Uncle so poetically put it: “Life is a Dancing Leap over a chasm that does not exist.”
<— Amen.
What dancing leap might YOU make over that chasm that doesn’t exist?
P.S. In Do the Work, Steven Pressfield echoes this wisdom. Here’s how he puts it:
“Don’t prepare. Begin.
Remember, our enemy is not lack of preparation; it’s not the difficulty of the project or the state of the marketplace or the emptiness of our bank account.
The enemy is Resistance.
The enemy is our chattering brain, which, if we give it so much as a nanosecond, will start producing excuses, alibis, transparent self-justifications, and a million reasons why we can’t/ shouldn’t/won’t do what we know we need to do.
Start before you’re ready.”
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
Live in Permanent Beta
“How do we avoid becoming extinct? How do we ensure that we remain relevant? Reid Hoffman, cofounder and chairman of LinkedIn, suggests that we all live in ‘permanent beta’—that we ‘never stop starting’ and ‘get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’.’ Hoffman proposes that living in perpetual beta allows you to be nimble, invest in yourself, build your network, take intelligent risks, and ‘make uncertainty and volatility work to [your] advantage.’ It’s a ‘mind-set brimming with optimism because it celebrates the fact that you have the power to improve yourself and, as important, improve he world around you.’”
Living in permanent beta.
That’s one of my favorite ideas and the cornerstone of allowing those small, incremental optimizations to aggregate and compound over time.
In Jocelyn Glei’s great book Maximize Your Potential, she shares wisdom from Ben Casnocha who wrote The Start-Up of You with Reid Hoffman.
Ben tells us: “Software companies often keep the ‘beta’ label on software for a time after the official launch to stress that the product is not finished so much as ready for the next batch of improvements. Gmail, for example, launched in 2004 but only left official beta in 2009, after millions of people were already using it. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, concludes every annual letter to shareholders by reminding readers, as he did in his first letter in 1997, that ‘it’s still Day 1’ at Amazon.com: ‘Though we are optimistic, we must remain vigilant and maintain a sense of urgency.’ In other words, Amazon is never finished: It’s always Day 1. For entrepreneurs, finished is an f-word.
Finished ought to be an f-word for all of us. We are all works in progress. Each day presents an opportunity to learn more, do more, be more, and grow more. Keeping yourself in ‘permanent beta’ makes you acknowledge that you have bugs, that there’s more testing to do on yourself, and that you will continue to adapt and evolve. It means a lifelong commitment to continuous personal growth. It is a mind-set brimming with optimism because it celebrates the fact that you have the power to improve yourself and, more important, improve the world around you.”
Imagine that.
We’re never finished.
No need for the pretense of perfection.
It’s always Day 1.
Just have fun trying to get a *tiny* bit better today.
Can you feel that freedom?
P.S. Reminds me of George Leonard’s Mastery where he tells us to approach our lives as a practice: “A practice (as a noun) can be anything you practice on a regular basis as an integral part of your life—not in order to gain something else, but for its own sake… For a master, the rewards gained along the way are fine, but they are not the main reason for the journey. Ultimately, the master and the master’s path are one. And if the traveler is fortunate—that is, if the path is complex and profound enough—the destination is two miles farther away for every mile he or she travels.”
Imagine loving the journey so much you HOPE the destination is two miles farther away for every mile we travel. We’re not trying to get to “finished.” We’re loving each moment of the journey too much for that. Every time I read or think about that I’m in awe…
If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.
I want you to be everything that’s you, deep at the center of your being.
Ego Within the Healthy Bounds of Humility
“An enlightened sense of ego is essential to fully appreciate the importance of self-confidence in peak performance and success. For most, the word ‘ego’ has an immediately negative connotation. In the compelling book, Egonomics, authors David Marcum and Steven Smith discuss the ironic ‘dual nature’ of ego, stating, ‘it is both a valuable asset, and a deep liability.’ The authors assert, ‘In the right amount, ego is inherently positive and provides a healthy level of confidence and ambition—driving out insecurity, fear, and apathy.’ The danger comes when ego is ‘left unchecked.’
When ego is kept within healthy bounds of humility, it lends itself to high performance—in the form of qualities such as self-confidence, innovation, and courage (all components of the New Smart). When ego abandons humility and gives way to pride, however, it can turn our greatest strengths into our most damaging weaknesses—‘self-confident’ becomes ‘self-absorbed,’ ‘innovative’ becomes ‘impractical,’ and ‘courage’ becomes ‘reckless.’”
Ego.
We’ve talked about it a fair amount in various notes.
Most recently in Ego Is the Enemy where Ryan Holiday tells us: “It’s when the notion of ourselves and the world grows so inflated that it begins to distort the reality that surrounds us. When, as the football coach Bill Walsh explained, ‘self- confidence becomes arrogance, assertiveness becomes obstinacy, and self-assurance becomes reckless abandon.’ This is the ego, as the writer Cyril Connolly warned, that ‘sucks us down like the law of gravity.’
In this way, ego is the enemy of what you want and of what you have: Of mastering your craft. Of real creative insight. Of working well with others. Of building loyalty and support. Of longevity. Of repeating and retaining your success. It repulses advantages and opportunities. It’s a magnet for enemies and errors.”
We need to do the math on our egonomics.
In short: We need a strong, healthy ego that’s plugged into something bigger than ourselves and grounded in a deep sense of humility.
We want the healthy, confident, grounded sense of self that gives us the power to live a life of meaning and purpose in service to the world.
And..
We want to keep that in check by grounding ourselves in a deep sense of humility and connection to something bigger than ourselves.
How’s your ego?
A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.
The Authentic You
“People love to say, ‘You gotta fake it till you make it.’ But this implies that the fake you is someone better than who you inherently are, and this is simply not the truth. Let me say this loud and clear: The person you imagine yourself to be in the very best and most powerful moments of your life, is the authentic you. And in truth, I imagine you’re probably much more incredible than even that.”
Fake it till you make it?
No need.
Just be the highest version of you. <— THAT’s the real you. The authentic you. —> “The person you imagine yourself to be in the very best and most powerful moments of your life, is the authentic you.”
Everything else is the fake version of you.
As Anthony de Mello says: “Get rid of your fear of failure, your tensions about succeeding, you will be yourself. Relaxed. You wouldn’t be driving with your brakes on. That’s what would happen.”
Imagine what your life would be like if you were completely uninhibited by fear, pride, or procrastination. What would you be capable of? Anything.