Why smart people do stupid things
How to build the courage to think for yourself in a world of groupthink, with guest Margie Warrell.
Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Other networks
Something is broken in our operating system.
We see it every day. Smart, successful people—people who run companies, people who write laws, people who we are told to look up to—publicly applauding ideas that are logically, historically, and morally bankrupt.
They nod along in meetings, clap at awards shows, and retweet sentiments that have zero receipts, no evidence of success, and often a long, bloody history of failure.
They champion concepts like “defund the police” or celebrate the idea that all success is built on “stolen land” without a single thought to the second and third-order consequences.
Why?
It’s not a lack of intelligence. It’s a lack of courage.
It’s the biological, deep-seated fear of being cast out of the tribe. It’s the comfort of consensus, even when the consensus is insane.
It’s the path of least resistance in a world that relentlessly punishes dissent.
In this episode of Finding Peak, I sit down with courage expert and author Margie Warrell for one of the most important conversations we’ve had on the show.
We don’t just diagnose the problem of modern cowardice; we give you the framework to fight back.
This isn’t a theoretical discussion. This is a tactical briefing for leaders who refuse to outsource their thinking.
Connect with Margie Warrell
Website: https://margiewarrell.com/
Book, The Courage Gap: https://www.amazon.com/Courage-Gap-Five-Steps-Action/dp/1119422253
The Moment I Realized I Wasn’t Fixed
I used to think I had my demons beat. I’d built a successful business, cultivated discipline, and thought I had left my worst behaviors in the past.
Then, I lost the business. And in that moment of crisis, they all came roaring back.
The death-scrolling.
The drinking.
The smoking pot.
The avoidance.
The weakness.
It was a humbling, gut-wrenching realization: I wasn’t fixed.
…and as Margie explains in our conversation, none of us are.
The work is not to fix yourself, but to manage yourself. It’s about building the systems and the self-awareness to handle the darkness when it inevitably returns.
It’s about choosing to extend grace to yourself, not as a soft platitude, but as a battlefield necessity to get you back in the fight.
This personal story is the backdrop for our entire conversation.
Because the courage to lead others starts with the courage to face yourself.
The Courage-Comfort Paradox
“Growth and comfort can’t ride the same horse.” - Margie Warrell
Your brain is not designed to make you successful; it’s designed to keep you alive. It craves certainty and fears rejection.
This is the fundamental paradox every leader faces. Every opportunity for growth, every meaningful action, lies on the other side of a wall of discomfort.
Margie breaks down the biology of fear and why the thought of being cast out of our social group is processed by our brain with the same life-or-death intensity as facing a predator.
This is why we stay silent in meetings. This is why we applaud stupid things. We are terrified of being left alone.
Breaking this cycle requires a conscious, deliberate decision to value truth over belonging.
It requires you to build your own internal validation system, independent of the crowd.
Receipts Over Rhetoric: Your Shield Against Absurdity
In a world drowning in opinions, you need a filter. My filter is simple: Show me the receipts.
I don’t care about your intentions, your feelings, or how popular an idea is. I care about the results.
Does it work?
Is there evidence of its success, not just in a theoretical white paper, but in the messy reality of the real world?
The Bible? For 2,000 years, it has produced transformed lives, built hospitals, and laid the foundation for Western civilization. It has receipts.
Capitalism? For all its flaws, it has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system in human history. It has receipts.
Forced DEI initiatives? Defund the police? Show me the thriving, safe, and prosperous communities built on these ideas. They don’t exist. There are no receipts.
This framework is your shield.
When you demand evidence over emotion, you become immune to the contagion of bad ideas.
You start operating in reality, not in the shared delusion of the mob.
Lead from Your Values, Not from the Headlines
As a leader, you are under constant pressure to have a take on every issue, to signal your virtue on every trending topic.
It’s exhausting, and it’s a trap. It turns leaders into reactive puppets, not sovereign pillars of stability.
Margie provides a powerful alternative: Lead from your values, not from the headlines.
When you are anchored in a clear, consistent set of principles, you don’t need to consult Twitter to know where you stand.
You have a compass. This consistency is what builds trust.
Your team, your customers, and your family don’t need you to be a weathervane, spinning with every political breeze.
They need you to be a lighthouse.
This conversation is your guide to becoming that lighthouse.
It’s about building the internal fortitude to stand your ground, to think for yourself, and to lead with courage in a world that desperately needs it.
If you’re done with the noise and ready to operate in reality, this episode is mandatory listening.
This is the way.
Ryan Hanley
♻️ Be sure to share this article with a friend that needs to see it!
Follow Ryan Hanley for more contrarian takes on power, leverage, and influence in the age of AI.