Arnold Schwarzenneger – What was he thinking? Why do smart people do dumb things?
There is no shortage of people who are accomplished, famous, and rich, and seem to have just about everything but who do stupid things, not to mention how immoral they are and how many people they hurt along the way. We can include in that long list Tiger Woods, former Governors Elliot Spitzer, Jim Mc Greevey, Bernie Madoff
and the list goes on and on.
There are two questions that we need to ask ourselves:
- Why do they do it when it is almost certain they will be caught and loose everything they have achieved?
2. Is there anything we can learn from this in our own lives?
Question #1 – Why do they do it?
Here are three reasons why these folks get in over their heads. These people have an unrealistic view of themselves.
1. They believe they will be the exception because they have had exceptional accomplishments and they distorted view of what they can control.
2. Some of these people have a need to fail. They don’t think they deserve to have good things happen to them, so they will continue to do risky things
until they get caught.
3. There ego’s are so big or so damaged that once they
make a mistake they can’t admit they are wrong.
My entry on June 7th will talk about what we “regular folks” can learn from these “smart folks” who really do stupid things.
Your comments as to why you think these people do these things would be welcomed
Dr. Marty