Dan Martell - March 09, 2026


Why Dumb People Make More Money Than You


Episode Stats


Length

16 minutes

Words per minute

203.9624

Word count

3,363

Sentence count

212

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Toxicity

88

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Dumb people make more money than you because they don t care about what they don't know. They don't second guess themselves, they just act. In this episode, learn why dumb people are more likely to be successful than you are.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
00:00:00.000 Have you ever wondered why dumb people make more money than you? 0.99
00:00:03.300 Like, how are people with no degrees building multi-million dollar empires 0.99
00:00:07.860 while straight A students are working 9 to 5s?
00:00:11.040 Because it turns out, the richest people aren't actually that smart.
00:00:14.280 In fact, the average millionaire only has a 2.9 GPA.
00:00:18.240 And I know this from personal experience.
00:00:19.840 I did horrible in school.
00:00:21.560 I didn't go to university.
00:00:22.800 And today, I live my dream life traveling the world,
00:00:25.760 all while running multiple businesses.
00:00:27.400 So in today's video, I'm going to show you the three reasons why your intelligence might 0.99
00:00:32.220 be keeping you broke, the psychology behind it, and I'm also going to give you three dumb 0.68
00:00:37.160 strategies that will make you richer than you ever thought possible, regardless of your 0.97
00:00:41.500 IQ, starting with uninformed optimism. 0.99
00:00:44.940 The first reason dumb people make more money is they don't know what they don't know, and 0.99
00:00:49.200 they don't care. 1.00
00:00:50.320 They have an unreasonable amount of confidence because they literally don't second guess
00:00:55.100 themselves.
00:00:56.000 Smart people have this tendency to overanalyze.
00:00:59.480 They doubt themselves. 0.99
00:01:00.780 Dumb people just act. 1.00
00:01:02.580 So there's this thing called the emotional cycle of change. 1.00
00:01:05.360 It's the rollercoaster of feelings that people experience
00:01:08.100 when they choose to make a major change in their life.
00:01:10.420 In that first stage, the uninformed optimism is the best one.
00:01:13.860 Research shows that 93% of Americans
00:01:15.900 think they're above average drivers,
00:01:18.240 which is statistically impossible.
00:01:20.000 It's also called the Dunning-Kruger effect,
00:01:22.180 which means that most people
00:01:23.240 think they're smarter than they are.
00:01:24.580 The problem is, is that when it comes to making money,
00:01:27.480 people that are intelligent make up a ton of reasons
00:01:30.180 of why the thing won't work.
00:01:32.180 You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
00:01:34.100 The smartest people overthink their shots
00:01:36.120 and never even take them.
00:01:37.940 So confidence is one thing, 0.99
00:01:39.320 but there's a second reason dumb people win, 0.93
00:01:41.400 and it's the one thing that keeps smart people 0.99
00:01:43.900 playing small their entire lives. 1.00
00:01:46.700 Reason number two, they're scared to look stupid. 0.99
00:01:49.960 Most people don't try, not because they're scared to fail, 1.00
00:01:52.320 they're scared to be seen failing.
00:01:54.580 So why does a smart person do this?
00:01:56.420 It's because they want to protect their smart kid identity.
00:01:59.400 In the book, Mindset by Carol Dweck,
00:02:01.720 she talks about this, that there's a study
00:02:03.500 where children that have been praised for being smart
00:02:06.520 will eventually get to a point
00:02:07.760 where they will avoid challenging situations
00:02:09.820 because they're afraid of losing that smart kid label. 0.99
00:02:14.380 Dumb people aren't scared of looking anything. 0.99
00:02:16.880 They're like, I don't care if you think I don't know, 1.00
00:02:19.120 I don't know.
00:02:20.000 I need to know the answer, you have the answer, 0.97
00:02:22.020 so I'm gonna ask the question even if I look dumb
00:02:23.800 because then I'll have the answer 0.94
00:02:24.820 to be able to make a good decision.
00:02:26.540 I remember one time I was coaching this woman, Jessica,
00:02:28.520 and I noticed she never asked questions.
00:02:30.760 And I called her out on Instagram.
00:02:32.060 I literally messed her on Instagram. 1.00
00:02:33.020 I said, hey, you haven't asked a question in a while.
00:02:34.920 And then she admitted, she's like,
00:02:35.900 well, I just don't want anybody to think
00:02:37.380 that I don't know what I'm doing in my business.
00:02:38.860 I said, here's the deal.
00:02:39.960 You don't, that's why we're working together.
00:02:41.960 And if you ask questions, you'll learn more.
00:02:44.220 Next call, she asked a really simple question.
00:02:46.660 Everybody might've thought it was basic,
00:02:48.300 but I told her how her competitors
00:02:50.160 are using an automation tool to solve her problem,
00:02:52.560 which cut her costs in half.
00:02:54.960 And not only that, she doubled her business in 90 days 0.99
00:02:56.900 because she was willing to look dumb. 0.99
00:02:59.420 The smartest people in the rooms 1.00
00:03:00.900 are the ones that are willing to look stupid. 1.00
00:03:02.780 So here's what we're gonna do. 1.00
00:03:03.980 Grab a piece of paper or anything to write in.
00:03:06.180 I want you to write down your honest answers
00:03:08.640 to two questions.
00:03:10.280 One, what's one thing that you avoid doing 1.00
00:03:13.540 because you're scared you might look stupid 1.00
00:03:15.400 or incompetent while you're doing it? 1.00
00:03:17.060 Second question is,
00:03:18.360 who are you trying to impress by not doing it?
00:03:20.980 Write those things down
00:03:21.960 because we're gonna come back to them. 0.94
00:03:23.420 So we've established that the fear of looking dumb 0.97
00:03:25.960 keeps people stuck.
00:03:27.360 But here's a third reason smart people stay broke
00:03:29.800 and it's all about how you see risk.
00:03:32.200 Number three, bad risk radar.
00:03:34.700 I once read a study that showed
00:03:36.340 that people with lower cognitive scores
00:03:38.620 were willing to take risks in a controlled test.
00:03:41.800 But when it came to real money being involved,
00:03:44.300 they became less conservative than the average person.
00:03:47.360 Smart people overestimate the risk and play it safe.
00:03:50.840 And the truth is, it's not about making the right decision.
00:03:53.640 It's about making a decision, then making it right. 0.94
00:03:56.760 So here are two examples of smart versus dumb risk. 0.93
00:04:00.100 Smart. 0.95
00:04:01.200 Yahoo passes on Google twice.
00:04:03.980 Literally, in 1998, Google offered to sell Yahoo
00:04:06.600 for $1 million.
00:04:08.100 $1 million.
00:04:09.380 Yahoo said, nah.
00:04:11.420 Four years later, Yahoo comes back
00:04:13.300 once they see the traction and offers them $3 billion.
00:04:15.980 Google says, okay, but they came back at $5 billion.
00:04:18.880 Yahoo passed again.
00:04:20.100 Today, Google's worth way more than a trillion.
00:04:23.640 Two chances missed by overthinking. 1.00
00:04:26.260 Dumb, the FedEx gamble. 0.97
00:04:28.340 1973, the founder of FedEx, Fred Smith, he's got no money. 0.97
00:04:32.380 He can't even pay a 5K fuel bill.
00:04:34.300 He takes 5,000, all they have left in the bank account,
00:04:37.420 goes to Vegas, gambles, blackjack. 0.99
00:04:40.160 Now, most people think that's dumb. 0.99
00:04:41.980 Guess what? 0.97
00:04:42.820 He turned that into the 27 grand you need.
00:04:45.040 He got to survive and he became a global shipping giant.
00:04:48.880 The biggest risk is taking no risk.
00:04:51.800 I'm not promoting gambling,
00:04:53.060 but I want to emphasize the concept of taking risks.
00:04:56.520 So here's how we fix your broken risk radar.
00:04:58.660 I call it the ratios of risk.
00:05:00.680 There's three questions you gotta ask yourself.
00:05:02.680 First off, you ask yourself,
00:05:03.780 what's one investment that scares you right now?
00:05:06.360 Some people it's like hiring somebody,
00:05:08.640 hiring a coach, full-time employee, going pro.
00:05:12.160 There's something about some way
00:05:14.120 you wanna spend your money.
00:05:15.200 Write that dollar amount down.
00:05:16.460 Like, what do you think that costs?
00:05:18.760 The second is, is what's the percent
00:05:20.520 of your annual income in that?
00:05:22.980 Are you putting like your whole life savings
00:05:24.760 or is it a small percentage?
00:05:26.120 Third is if you knew you couldn't fail,
00:05:28.500 would you make that bet?
00:05:30.080 And what I want to inform you
00:05:31.820 is that you have to recalibrate.
00:05:34.280 When I started in business,
00:05:36.140 spending $18 for a book felt like a serious investment.
00:05:40.740 And then I got to a place where I noticed
00:05:42.400 that every time I made an investment, my life got better,
00:05:45.200 but the size of the investment had to go up
00:05:47.800 in a relation to the level of risk. 0.99
00:05:50.260 Dumb people realize that it's not an absolute dollar amount, 0.99
00:05:54.480 it's a percentage. 0.99
00:05:55.900 They'll put a lot more money behind the things
00:05:57.980 that smart people won't even pay for.
00:06:00.000 Smart people are like, I got a $20 gym membership,
00:06:02.460 I feel good about myself. 0.96
00:06:03.800 A dumb person goes, well, if I don't pay you 250 to go, 0.99
00:06:07.140 I know I don't trust myself, I won't go, 1.00
00:06:09.140 but if I pay you 250, I wanna get my money's worth,
00:06:11.160 so I'm gonna do that instead.
00:06:12.680 Do you see the difference?
00:06:14.120 Because when people don't pay, they don't pay attention.
00:06:16.760 If you're not willing to put money at risk
00:06:19.900 to get a reward proportionate to the reward you want,
00:06:22.940 then you won't get it.
00:06:23.980 The truth is the biggest risk you could ever take
00:06:26.540 is not having the time in your calendar
00:06:28.840 to do the thing that's gonna make you the most money.
00:06:30.720 Most people need an assistant. 0.99
00:06:32.080 Most people need a virtual assistant, executive assistant,
00:06:34.500 even somebody in your home to help you clean.
00:06:36.400 The challenge is the most smart people
00:06:38.160 wouldn't even know what to ask them to do.
00:06:40.080 So if you want my internal EA playbook, the whole thing,
00:06:43.460 It's 42 pages of exactly how I work
00:06:45.700 with my executive assistant.
00:06:47.100 Just find me on Instagram and message me, YouTube, EA,
00:06:50.260 and I'll send it right over. 0.99
00:06:51.300 Now you have the three reasons why dumb people 1.00
00:06:54.280 make more money than smart people. 1.00
00:06:56.300 They're overconfident, they're not scared to look stupid, 1.00
00:06:59.020 and they underestimate the risk, 0.99
00:07:00.980 which gets them in positions to get big returns.
00:07:04.040 But here's the good news. 0.99
00:07:05.400 You don't need to actually be dumb to win like they do. 0.99
00:07:08.600 You just need to dumb things down and keep it simple. 0.98
00:07:11.640 The three strategies I'm about to show you
00:07:13.560 all have one thing in common.
00:07:15.460 They eliminate complexity and make success way easier. 0.76
00:07:19.460 So let's start with dumb strategy number one,
00:07:22.080 model, then modify. 1.00
00:07:24.480 Dumb people just go, you're the expert. 1.00
00:07:26.980 You taught me how to do something. 1.00
00:07:28.420 I got your blueprint.
00:07:29.460 I'm just gonna do what you did.
00:07:31.540 Smart people get the blueprint, look at it and go,
00:07:34.200 this won't work for me because I'm a magic snowflake.
00:07:36.460 So they tweak it.
00:07:37.380 And then when they start doing it,
00:07:38.580 it didn't work the way the person
00:07:39.920 that gave it to them used it.
00:07:41.640 Why? They changed it way too early.
00:07:44.700 The research has shown this,
00:07:45.940 that entrepreneurs who copy existing business models
00:07:49.100 have a 20% higher chance of survival
00:07:51.440 than those who tried to innovate from scratch.
00:07:53.620 I think of my buddy, Felipe, he literally sells houses.
00:07:56.200 He's like, I wanna start coaching people.
00:07:57.780 How do I do it?
00:07:58.680 I showed him my model.
00:08:00.000 He didn't change it, he didn't tweak it,
00:08:02.440 he didn't try to make it his own.
00:08:03.900 He copied it, literally step by step.
00:08:07.400 A month later, he's making so much profit he can't believe it.
00:08:11.080 And everybody's like, how did you do it, Felipe?
00:08:13.000 He's like, I just follow what Dan told me how to do.
00:08:15.740 And this is the crazy part is somebody's been successful,
00:08:18.720 they're leaving clues, stop ignoring them.
00:08:21.220 Remember that thing I asked you to write down earlier,
00:08:23.000 that thing that scares you a little bit?
00:08:24.240 Here's what we're gonna do with that.
00:08:25.840 The first thing is you're gonna find somebody
00:08:28.060 that's already doing that thing 0.97
00:08:29.540 that you wanna do successfully.
00:08:31.560 The second thing is you wanna study exactly
00:08:33.640 what they did for three days.
00:08:35.320 Then this week, copy their first three steps exactly.
00:08:39.120 Don't try to be original yet,
00:08:40.680 just copy and start.
00:08:42.020 So for example, if you wanna get into YouTube
00:08:44.100 or creating content, just go back to my old stuff.
00:08:46.860 Write down the process, see what I did, follow my steps.
00:08:50.500 I have people that ask me all the time
00:08:52.480 about my social media strategy.
00:08:54.460 It's public, and I just say, do what I do.
00:08:58.280 Right off the bat, I'm publishing twice a day
00:09:00.400 on my Instagram, and you're not.
00:09:02.200 Why don't you copy that?
00:09:03.720 Model then modify.
00:09:04.780 If you want my results, literally copy me.
00:09:07.680 I want you to know this, by the way.
00:09:09.100 I care more that you win than you copying my stuff.
00:09:12.100 So if I do anything that you think is smart,
00:09:14.520 feel free to copy it.
00:09:15.680 It's yours to keep, you don't have to give me attribution.
00:09:18.280 I don't care.
00:09:19.600 I literally wanna see you win more than I care about that.
00:09:22.340 Now, copying someone gets you moving, that's awesome.
00:09:25.240 But you can still fail if you're copying the wrong thing.
00:09:28.100 So here's how to make sure you're on the right path 0.95
00:09:30.400 as somebody that's acting dumb. 0.99
00:09:32.720 Dumb strategy number two, zone of genius. 0.99
00:09:36.060 The zone of genius is deciding 0.96
00:09:38.300 what is the thing that you do
00:09:40.240 that creates the most value in the world 0.98
00:09:42.320 and actually strategically being dumb about everything else. 1.00
00:09:46.280 Dumb people do this fun thing where they're just like, 1.00
00:09:48.780 that's about my pay grade and they don't get involved 1.00
00:09:51.200 like finance or just stuff that doesn't matter.
00:09:53.480 So for example, if you didn't know this,
00:09:55.580 I don't approve anything that goes live on social media.
00:09:58.860 I see it the first time you see it.
00:10:01.300 I got dumb to the need to verify what you're editing.
00:10:05.620 Look, for the one or two times a year
00:10:07.860 that something gets published that was private,
00:10:10.300 that shouldn't have been included in some content,
00:10:12.240 I just hit archive.
00:10:13.400 It might be seen by a few thousand people,
00:10:15.060 but sometimes you just gotta let go.
00:10:16.940 And because you're too smart, you hold on way too long.
00:10:19.860 See, smart people think they gotta be good at everything.
00:10:22.540 I choose to only be good at the thing that needs me
00:10:24.840 and everything else.
00:10:25.680 I literally act like a three-year-old.
00:10:26.980 People ask me questions about stuff
00:10:28.340 and I'm like, I don't know.
00:10:29.700 Of course I know.
00:10:30.540 But if I answer the question,
00:10:31.700 they'll always come to me for the next question.
00:10:34.380 I don't wanna be having that conversation.
00:10:36.200 I wanna have the time to do the thing only I can do,
00:10:38.660 my zone of genius.
00:10:39.880 So to figure out your specific zone of genius,
00:10:42.180 you need to answer four questions.
00:10:44.100 And this comes from the Japanese methodology, Ikigai.
00:10:47.100 The first question is, what do you love doing?
00:10:49.420 Like, what do you do when you want to procrastinate?
00:10:52.840 What would you do with your friends?
00:10:54.240 Like, what do you truly love to do?
00:10:55.760 The second question is, what are you naturally good at?
00:10:57.940 You know, what's the thing that other people say,
00:11:00.040 oh, you're really good at that.
00:11:01.400 And you might not even consider it that special,
00:11:03.620 but other people comment on it.
00:11:05.460 That's the answer for number two.
00:11:06.820 Number three is what does the world need?
00:11:09.080 You might have a desire to do something
00:11:11.040 because you really enjoy it,
00:11:12.020 but there's no need out there for it.
00:11:14.080 And number four, what can you get paid for?
00:11:16.900 People might like something,
00:11:18.820 but they won't pay for something unless it's a real pain.
00:11:21.820 So what do people already spend money on in this area?
00:11:24.780 That's the answer for number four.
00:11:26.360 If you think of those four questions,
00:11:28.700 the overlapping center of that diagram
00:11:32.100 is your zone of genius.
00:11:33.720 That is where you should go all in, okay?
00:11:36.840 Look at the ratios of risk of where you're taking risks.
00:11:40.080 Is it aligned with your zone of genius?
00:11:42.300 If not, that's where it needs to be
00:11:44.040 because that's exactly what your next level requires.
00:11:46.980 But here's where smart people screw it up.
00:11:49.040 They just complicate it. 0.99
00:11:50.460 Here's how to keep it stupidly simple. 1.00
00:11:52.920 Dumb strategy number three, simple scales. 1.00
00:11:55.980 This is my mantra in life. 0.95
00:11:58.200 It's our core value at my company.
00:12:00.420 It's what I talk to at all my executives.
00:12:02.140 objectives simplify simplify simplify okay you can't scale chaos you have to keep it simple 0.99
00:12:07.660 dumb people are rich because they keep it stupidly simple you know i was in a finance meeting 0.95
00:12:13.100 recently with my team and they were trying to explain to me some decisions on some investments 1.00
00:12:17.040 and i was like you guys are over complicating it the truth is draw me a picture treat me like i'm
00:12:23.160 in seventh grade smart people literally try to over complicate it because it makes them feel
00:12:28.280 smart, where dumb people keep getting richer because they get information in a way that
00:12:32.800 allows them to make decisions faster. And my favorite story of this is the story of Sriracha. 0.99
00:12:37.300 David Tran, the founder, came to America with nothing. And his dumb plan was pretty straightforward. 0.98
00:12:42.900 Sell one type of hot sauce. While big companies were trying to give him advice and everybody 0.99
00:12:47.600 coming in, you need to do this, you need to do that. He said, no, I'm going to do one thing
00:12:51.980 and I'm going to do it really well. I'm going to make sure everybody knows about it. And it's
00:12:55.980 become such a cultural phenomenon.
00:12:58.380 The green cap bottle for 40 years, Sriracha.
00:13:01.680 He didn't overthink it or try to be a genius.
00:13:04.500 He did one simple thing perfectly.
00:13:07.540 Now he's a billionaire. 0.99
00:13:08.740 The dumbest solution is usually the right one 1.00
00:13:11.660 because it's the least complex. 0.99
00:13:13.660 Here's why complexity always sneaks in
00:13:15.520 is because adding stuff makes you feel productive.
00:13:18.280 It costs nothing to add.
00:13:19.700 It makes you feel like you're doing something,
00:13:21.660 but subtracting makes the system actually work.
00:13:24.700 Right now, you've got your zone of genius.
00:13:26.840 You know what you gotta do.
00:13:28.300 Now I gotta teach you the scaling credo
00:13:30.320 so you don't overcomplicate it.
00:13:32.240 It requires these five ones.
00:13:34.500 Here's how it works.
00:13:35.680 The first thing we have to do is pick one target market,
00:13:38.380 okay, who can I serve the best, who I wanna serve,
00:13:41.180 just pick one.
00:13:42.540 The second thing is one product.
00:13:44.820 What's the one thing that you know will give them value?
00:13:48.700 What would I sell if I knew I only got paid
00:13:51.520 if they got the result?
00:13:52.700 Third is one conversion tool,
00:13:54.700 the one way you get them to buy.
00:13:56.880 If it's through partners, if it's through paid,
00:13:59.180 if it's through creating content,
00:14:00.880 what's the one way you get their attention
00:14:03.040 and sell them something?
00:14:04.380 Number four is one channel, one place to go find them.
00:14:08.040 Where are they hiding?
00:14:08.880 Are they going to events?
00:14:09.740 Are they on Facebook?
00:14:10.580 Are they on TikTok?
00:14:11.420 One traffic source.
00:14:12.920 You wanna go all in on one.
00:14:15.480 And the last one is one year.
00:14:17.600 If you commit to these four things for 12 months
00:14:21.100 without distractions, you put blinders on.
00:14:23.200 You will blow your mind on what you can accomplish. 1.00
00:14:26.000 Dumb people kick smart people's asses 1.00
00:14:29.340 because they don't get distracted. 1.00
00:14:31.500 They don't add a bunch of stuff 0.98
00:14:33.220 and they're able to do a dumb thing,
00:14:35.740 which is to sell hot sauce with a green cap 0.97
00:14:38.560 for 40 years to become a billionaire.
00:14:40.800 Do you care how you become a billionaire, you smarty pants?
00:14:43.680 You see what I'm saying?
00:14:44.680 I love you, but stop over-complicating it.
00:14:47.220 If your goal is to be rich,
00:14:49.260 the strategy I just shared with you
00:14:50.920 the highest probability of you getting rich so write those down that's your entire focus for 0.99
00:14:56.760 the next year you now have everything you need okay you know why dumb people are richer than 0.99
00:15:01.880 smart people you know what you need to do so that you can incorporate their dumb strategies so that 0.98
00:15:06.440 you can get rich don't over complicate it don't overthink it just go and i know some people are
00:15:11.960 going to watch this and they're still going to want to over complicate it and here's why
00:15:15.320 overthinking feels safe because it delays the responsibility making things complex to start
00:15:21.560 means there's nothing to start to get feedback on that you can fail at and action feels risky
00:15:26.920 because it creates truth you now know i've always said that the business plan never survives first
00:15:32.280 contact with the customer the only thing you need to be doing is selling something to a stranger
00:15:37.000 yet we all add this complexity i gotta get the name i gotta get it patented i need to get a
00:15:42.040 trademark i need to get the domain it's like all this noise to just start people feel like they
00:15:47.480 need clarity to make a decision clarity is the reward for movement making decisions it's not a
00:15:52.760 prerequisite that needs to be there so what i need you to do below in the comments just tell me one
00:15:57.880 area of your business you're going to dumb down is it taking action is it hiring is it marketing
00:16:03.560 is it sales what are you just going to simplify and dumb down so you can get richer i need you
00:16:08.920 you to leave a comment below. And just remember, if you're a business owner and you're trying to
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