Wellness Corner 33: Brave Stupidity

Hey Falcons,

A peer of mine said something a few weeks ago that stayed with me; they said “we are either bravely stupid or stupidly brave.” 

I immediately linked the two together — after all, don’t we have to be stupidly brave to be bravely stupid?

Vulnerability, being unafraid to showcase our authenticity (our stupid bravery), is key to helping us reach success by voicing our opinions and original ideas (our brave stupidity). 

Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore once said: “You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.”

It takes a level of gung ho abandon (call it stupidity or bravery) to throw yourself out into the world, into that sea, whether socially, in educational settings, or otherwise — and open yourself up to the possibilities. You have to get over your ego and, often, be willing to play the fool so you can learn and grow further. And one day, surely, you’ll cross that sea.  

This is just the bud of a much larger conversation we could have about the importance of thoughtful risk-taking (on this topic, read former MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga’s interview, or watch his talk at Stanford (below), one of my favorites), authenticity, and courage in achieving our goals. 

For now, I invite you to think about how you can be both stupidly brave and bravely stupid in the second semester of the school year.

Stay well,

Eshaan