7 habits of stupid and highly motivated people
wasted: Tons of time with people who are so “thick” that they just keep going down the same dumb path.
Required Actions: #1. Fiercely challenge stupid highly motivated people (HMSP). Prepare to be wrong sometimes. #2. Don’t give them the time of day.
Possible obstacles: An inability and/or unwillingness to confront and shut down bad ideas enthusiastically proposed by stupid people.
Notoriety of Highly Motivated Stupidity: Flirtation. Multiple marriages. Enron, Nortel, Bernie Madoff. People who worked for Bernie Madoff. Financial world. The management of Washington Mutual. Tuxedo. Drunk driving etc.
“Consider the stupidity of the average person. Then realize that the rest of us are even more stupid!” – George Carlin.
I know it’s not popular to label people stupid. But just watch Dragons Den TV shows, American Idol auditions, Oprah, Dr. Phil, or Survivor and you’ll realize that some people are just plain stupid.
All of us do stupid things at some point in our lives. We pay the price and learn from those unfortunate actions. No problem. We lose our motivation to do things that don’t work or are unlikely to work. We continue.
I define a stupid and highly motivated person as one who, despite the evidence presented to him or the ideas offered by the wisest and most experienced people, and no matter how many times he fails to achieve his goal, they continue to trying to do it. They live in denial.
Stupid people, I think, can have high IQs. During the 31 years that as a corporate psychologist I have watched and listened to highly intelligent IQ people being consistently stupid, I have discovered their 7 common habits:
- Stupid and highly motivated people work to keep their self-awareness low. They operate like a deer in headlights.
- HMSPs actively reject anything that doesn’t fit their concept of their reality.
- They are filled with contempt or pity for others who do not share their view of how the world works.
- HMSPs will spend their and/or their families’ money in a failed attempt to make their dream come true.
- They will frivolously “burn their support bridges” to be abandoned on the island of alienation.
- HMSPs are constantly on the lookout for that one person to confirm their idiotic and unfeasible idea.
- They are masters of self-deception fueled by their positive thinking. The more deceived they are, the more motivated they are to continue on their nefarious path.
