Wisdom does not guarantee us from silly behavior, it is a fact. Take Albert Einstein, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, or any other great mind of the world, read their biographies and you’ll see what I mean. I think I know a few reasons why the most outstanding minds of the world tend to err as badly as they excel in explaining the complexities of this world.

• The greatest thinkers tend to overthink things, and therefore, they overreact in social situations. The smartest people have the tendency to complicate everything in their mind, because they expect things to be complex.
• The smartest people are often a bit too confident (not without reason, of course), and knowing that you are always right is tricky, because eventually you will lose the ability to question your own conclusions, while self-criticism is an inseparable part of general critical thinking ability, which helps continuously develop one’s mind.
• Another thing is the lack of so-called emotional intelligence. Great thinkers often fail to understand, or simply ignore, other people’s emotions, while emotional intelligence is the greatest social skill. It is easy to make fool of yourself if you try to ignore common social habits or traditions.
• Quite often, great thinkers lack practical skills, which are necessary in social life. The greatest thinkers are often weak at simple practical tasks, which makes them quite vulnerable in thr eyes of ordinary people.

Just a few facts to think over:

Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four and did not read until he was seven, causing his teachers and parents to think he was mentally handicapped, slow and anti-social. Eventually, he was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School.

Isaac Newton was undoubtedly a genius when it came to math, but he had some failings early on. He never did particularly well in school and when put in charge of running the family farm, he failed miserably, so poorly in fact that an uncle took charge and sent him off to Cambridge where he finally blossomed into the scholar we know today.

Winston Churchill struggled in school and failed the sixth grade. After school he faced many years of political failures, as he was defeated in every election for public office until he finally became the Prime Minister at the ripe old age of 62.

Walt Disney had a bit of a rough start in his life. He was fired by a newspaper editor because, “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” After that, Disney started a number of businesses that didn’t last too long and ended with bankruptcy and failure. He kept plugging along, however, and eventually found a recipe for success that worked.

In his early years, teachers told Thomas Edison he was “too stupid to learn anything.” Work was no better, as he was fired from his first two jobs for not being productive enough. Even as an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. Of course, all those unsuccessful attempts finally resulted in the design that worked.

I could continue the list on and on. Well, these facts only give us, ordinary people, more confidence in our potential to develop and not to fail big in the future.