read this if you don't want to become a failure
Being seen as 'smart' doesn’t save you. Action does. Escape the trap of wasted potential.
There’s a 60% chance that you were seen as “the smart one” in your group. Not just clever, but the one who translated the adult world for the rest; who instinctively saw the subtext in a clever joke; applied the K-method in that maths problem when few others did (lol). The one who, at some indistinct point in early adolescence, realised they were perhaps watching the world a few frames ahead of everyone else. Maybe not in an arrogant way - or rather in a quietly arrogant way - but you still attached that label to yourself.
I saw that identity in myself, too. I almost wore it like armour. It often shaped how I spoke, how I presented myself, and often how I didn’t try. Acting like everything came to me naturally. For years, I clung to this idea of being “the clever one,” terrified that if I stumbled publicly, the illusion would shatter. These days I’m trying hard to let go of it, but it’s genuinely difficult. Letting go of being smart - or at least being seen as smart - feels somewhat like stepping outside with a booger halfway out your nose. Exposing the imperfect, vulnerable you.
But I’m finally realising that holding onto that identity is far more corrosive than just shedding that sh*t.
I like to think that ‘intelligence’ has a way of becoming its own kind of prison. It flatters you while slowly convincing you that thinking is enough in itself; that insight somehow equals action; that knowing better is somehow the same as doing better. And then years pass. And maybe you’re still waiting. Waiting for some external validation to match your internal certainty. Waiting for someone to notice how much potential you’re carrying, as though potential were a currency you could hoard and one day exchange for a fully-formed life.
A lot of memecoin or stock traders do the same thing when they say “Nah bro I’m not selling yet! Trust - this project still has so much potential! I’ve got diamond hands!”
Safe to say - diamond hands is not the way forward when you think your ‘smart guy’ label + ‘potential’ will do the work for you. Labelling potential kills dreams. It makes you more comfortable with inaction.
Meanwhile, someone ‘dumber’ than you - less articulate, less self-aware, less careful - takes your idea, fumbles through the execution, gets laughed at, stumbles again, and eventually builds something you were too cautious, too perfectionist, too addicted to hypothetical outcomes to begin. And there you are, stuck in a purgatory of ‘almosts’ and ‘should haves’ to try and justify failure to only yourself, really.
This is the part no one tells you: ‘Smart' doesn’t scale. Execution does.
Clarity, yes. Consistency, even more. The most dangerous person in any room is not the genius with ten ideas - it’s the idiot who picked one and kept showing up. Day after day. Dumb enough to commit. Too naïve to overthink. While the smart one kept sharpening the axe, the fool built a forest.
Of course, this isn’t an argument for ignorance either. This is merely a call to stop using your intelligence as an excuse to do the dirty work:
Start things before you’re ready. Learn by doing, not just by watching. Ship the project. Launch the campaign. Tell the girl. Apply for the thing. Intelligence without momentum rots. Potential without risk calcifies into regret.
And here’s something else worth saying: even if you weren’t known as “the smart one” - you still get to win. Because “smart” isn’t an intrinsic trait - it’s just a facade. This fragile story. This label is often the product of early praise; being a top academic achiever in school; a lack of intellectual peers; or sometimes even a parent’s desperate hope. But once this label calcifies into identity, it becomes brittle and merely performative. You start avoiding mistakes. You seek affirmation over progress. You fear being seen trying - because trying might reveal you’re not that special after all.
Meanwhile, the kid who was told they were average develops something far more valuable: resilience. Sheer quiet, durable strength. They don’t expect brilliance to save them. So they build. And in doing so, they often surpass the “smart” kids who kept waiting for the world to recognise their spark. It’s so ironic, actually.
Being smart is a fine head start. But it’s just that - a start. What you become is entirely up to your willingness to be wrong, to begin before you’re certain, to fail in full view, and to keep going when the shine of being “gifted” wears off.
So, then, how can we make sure we don’t get attached to this ‘smarty-pants’ facade?
well…
How to Get Off the High Horse and Start Building
1. Stop protecting your reputation
Let go of looking polished. No one changes the world from the safety of their own head. Ship the messy version. Say the thing you’re not sure is “smart enough.” Post the work before it's ready. Progress is built from imperfect bricks. The sooner you accept that, the faster you’ll move.
2. Redefine failure
Failure isn’t a flaw. It’s the cost of doing meaningful work. If you’re not failing, you’re really just hiding. Failure is a compass, not a verdict. It tells you what to try next. Use it, don’t fear it.
3. Build with urgency
Ideas rot. Potential expires. Most people never ship because they confuse planning with progress. Urgency isn’t rushing; it’s refusing to wait for permission. Move before you’re ready. Because ‘ready’ is genuinely just a myth.
4. Lower the bar for iteration
The first version should embarrass you. That’s the point. Iteration is the engine of mastery. Lower the bar. Then raise it with action, not ego.
5. Anchor to effort, not outcome
Outcomes are noisy. They also lie. Effort doesn’t - so show up daily. Especially when it’s not easy, not fun, not glamorous. Discipline outlasts genius. Be the one who keeps going. That’s what compounds.
6. Kill the identity
Smart is a trap. So is average. So is gifted, talented, promising. You are not what people call you. You are what you consistently do. If that’s thinking instead of building, you’ve already lost. If that’s working, sharing, learning - then the label doesn’t matter. You’ve already won.
In the end, the smartest person in the room isn’t the one who waits for perfect timing or hoards potential like it’s bitcoin - it’s the one who risks looking foolish because they know that motion, not mastery, is what transforms raw insight into real impact.
Because brilliance locked in your head helps no one, and perfection is just procrastination in designer clothing.
We don’t need more polished geniuses whispering in the stands - we need people building with skin in the game.
So start, smarty-pants. Before your talent turns into nostalgia.
how'd you know the title would get me to click? ;) great read! keep writing amigo. don't stop. can't stop. won't stop.
Loving it! Lots of serious value bombs in here...