Smart is different from intelligence or common sense.
To be smart doesn’t have to mean you have to get everything right. Sometimes the smartest of all, make the dumbest mistakes. As they say, to err is human. And mistakes are a lesson, not a setback.
Here are a few examples of what smart people might just overlook while trodding down their path to success.
1. Reigning everyone in too tight, pushing people too hard in order to get everything right, sometimes resulting in a big mess.
2. Showing excessive respect for authority.
3. Underrating efforts and overestimating talent.
4. Copying the habits of other successful people instead of being inspired.
5. Overlooking the negative consequences of their aspirations.
6. Not taking criticism in the right spirit.
7. Jumping into things way too quickly.
8. Overthinking almost everything.
9. Skipping or completely ignoring a second opinion on a major decision.
10. Ignoring the details in the pursuit of the bigger picture.
11. Trying to obsessively educate everyone you meet.
12. Getting overly discouraged when others don’t see eye to eye to your ideas.
13. Inappropriately correcting people even when you don’t need to.
14. Being excessively argumentative.
15. Overvaluing the education system, degrees and titles.
Everything doesn’t need to be perfect, imperfection is the mother of creation. And mistakes are the only way creation can happen.