Originally posted on LinkedIn
How to cross the Moat of Low Status 🫠 — or the importance of being willing to look dumb every now and then.
A while back I read an article by Cate Hall (highly recommended blog) talking about the “Moat of Low Status” (link in comments)
It’s the “embarrassment” you feel when you try something new.
Being the first one to get up and dance. Breaking inertia to start something. Deciding to switch to a new industry.
It’s the moat of low status because trying something new usually means starting from a “socially low” point — looking silly 🐻
Standing in the center with everyone watching. Being the least knowledgeable person in a meeting. Putting a business idea out there and risking it being bad.
Natalia Castro Montaña, in one of our Action Lab sessions, talked about internal saboteurs. She even had us take a test — link in comments.
Those saboteurs (the perfectionist, the people-pleaser, the hyper-rational one, among others) are what prevent us from crossing the moat, and therefore what stop us from creating new or interesting things.
We have to cross the moat. It’s worth exposing yourself to looking silly in order to move from inertia to action.
Sharing my own saboteur results. What do you think? Is it worth exposing yourself? When have you had to “look dumb” to achieve something great?
