The More Stupid You Are, the More Money You Make

Stop your obsession with rationality

First, let’s define stupid in this context. I will define stupid as that which is the inverse of rationality. But let’s put some boundaries around that.

If you puncture a ball with a knife, the ball will deflate and get damaged. It is stupidity to puncture a ball with a knife and hope that doesn’t happen. But that is NOT the kind of stupidity we are talking about here.

If you cook a meal without adding salt, the food will be tasteless. It is stupid to try to cook a meal without salt and still try to make it tasty. That is the kind of stupidity I am referring to here.

You want to get a process (that is not supposed to produce a desired outcome) to produce the desired outcome. That kind of stupidity gets rewarded in a big way. But that is often after several failures.

My point here is that too many people live their entire lives, not trying anything stupid. And that is why they stay average. My goal here is to challenge you to try something stupid this week.

Rationality is Overrated

It gets ingrained in us from childhood. The desire to be like other kids and to follow the herd. Childish curiosity gets replaced by the rigid rules of adulthood.

But the people who have changed or advanced the world in any way shape or form have been the crazy ones. They have been the stupid ones.

Instead of walking in their steps, we call them geniuses. A genius is nothing more than someone stupid enough to believe that their stupidity (or non-conformity) is actually genius.

This is why if you meet any of these wildly celebrated geniuses in real life, they are very different from the way the media presents them.

Irrationality is genius. But you have to believe in it long before anybody else does. This is the main challenge of life. It is all about how long you can keep believing in your genius regardless of what life throws at you.

Most people don’t even find their genius in the first place. It was killed in childhood and they became conformists. What they are good at was what they learned at school or from a teacher of some sort. They have nothing that is pure creative force from within.

This is why I always advise creative people not to go to school to improve their creativity. If you consider yourself a natural genius in music, don’t go to a school of music. Instead, go to a school of marketing.

If you are a natural speaker, don’t go to a school of public speaking. Instead, go to business school. If you are good with tech, go to school to learn something like finance.

Never seek to improve your gifts through study. Take your gifts into an environment where they can be amplified by something else. That is stupidity. And it does pay off.

The Money Connection

I write every day. My primary skill is written communication. And I never went to school for it. Neither will I ever. I study money instead.

You don’t have to study money to have a lot of it. But you have to be willing to do stupid things. Stupid things don’t work out often. But when they do, they pay off in a big way.

A few years ago, I heard someone talk about something that really shook my thinking. He made a page for a package for $50k as a fun challenge. But they accidentally made it live without realizing it.

Several weeks later, they had a problem. Someone paid for the package. Since it was a fun challenge, they had to refund the buyer because they were not prepared to deliver on it. But it taught them a lesson. Sometimes it pays to be irrational.

Who would have thought that someone will pay $50k just by reading a sales page? Now, this goes against every strategy of selling online that I know. I am not saying you should try it. But I am saying — have you ever tried something like that?

If you sell artwork (as an example), how much is your most expensive piece? If it is less than $25k, why is it so cheap?

I don’t mean the most expensive piece you have sold. It could be not yet sold. You ought to have something that expensive. Even if just one.

You don’t have to advertise it. Most of these expensive things don’t get advertised. But you ought to have an expensive product or service. It doesn’t matter if you don’t need the money. Do it because it is irrational.

Do it for the fun of watching something stupid make a lot of money

Detach from the money. And enjoy the stupidity. You might be thinking, “What if it doesn’t sell?” And my reply to that is, “What if it sells?”

Don’t Fear Rules

There was a time marriage was illegal in a certain country. The country was at war. And they found out that men who are married are less likely to be motivated to pick up weapons and fight.

In fact, I recently found out that the reason only men were originally allowed to vote was to determine a country’s stance on war. Any man who is not old enough to go to war is not allowed to vote. Only people who put their life on the line at war get to choose political leaders.

Yes, times have changed. But we no longer have logical criteria for voting. Maybe if only taxpayers (who do not owe the IRS) were allowed to vote, the process will be way better. Anyway, I digress.

My point here is that rules are made to be understood, not to be feared. In fact, I dare say that rules are not made to be obeyed. They are made to be understood.

This is because rules are mostly a bunch of “do not”. But there is a reason such a rule was made in the first place. In many cases, it is traced to an incident.

And in today’s world, if you go back to trace the incident that led to many rules (of society), you would find out that it created more problems. And very likely the underlying problem is still unsolved.

Also, people who read the rules only are not equipped to live with understanding. The more people follow rules in society, the worse things get. A society with a fundamental understanding of why things exist the way they do grows better in every respect.

So, don’t fear rules. I know this is difficult for most people. I have experience with this too.

Recently, I was working on an artistic project. And I had to make this 6 seconds video. After making the video my mind kept buzzing me that I have probably flagged a copyright rule.

That sent me down a rabbit hole of research. And it turns out there was no copyright infringement. But then, I thought even if there was, wouldn’t it be fun to find out? Yes, it might cost money. But the outrage and debate it would spark might just be worth it in marketing dollars.

Don’t live in fear. Do what you ought. Understand the rules, don’t fear them. Maybe if you understand the rules, you can change some irrelevant rules. Try the stupid.

Conclusion

Stupid gets attention. Stupid goes viral. Stupid goes trendy. Stupid does make money. Stupid makes people richer.

If all your life you have been rational, you should try something stupid this week. Remember our definition of stupid though.

I rest my case.

P.S. I send insightful perspectives on success and money 3 times per week to my Inner Circle Community members. Join FREE here — 7d3.co