The Courage to be Wrong

When it comes to innovation, when it comes to entrepreneurship, there is a lot said about embracing failure. Fail fast, fail forward, and so on. And to help you get through that, we hear the advice – stick to it, stay focused, keep going.

But there is a human side to failing, an emotional side, which you also have to manage. We hear people speak about dust yourself off, learn your lesson, and get back in the saddle – different ways to make the point. When you peel back the layers involved, you quickly recognize it can be an emotional roller-coaster,

Strap in. This episode is about fortifying your mindset for the toughest part of the journey: the human cost of taking a chance.

Hi I am Dr. Faheem Mohammed and this is Executive Insight. I am dedicating this episode to my eldest daughter – Sophia – who was a part of the experience that inspired this focus.

Today, we're diving into one of the most challenging, yet least discussed, parts of taking a big chance: not the market risk, not the financial risk, but the social and emotional risk.

You know the pattern. First, you're "ignorant." Then, when things get tough, you're a "joke." And if you dare to stand firm in your conviction, you're "arrogant." This pressure doesn't just stop with you; it can ripple out to your team, your reputation, and even your family.

So, how do you find the courage to wade through that kind of emotional backlash? How do you build the resilience to withstand the noise until, and if, the rewards ever come?

Today, we're not just talking about failure. We're talking about the emotional warfare that comes with daring to be different.

The First Wall of Resistance - You're Naive and Delusional

It always starts with an idea. A spark. A belief. A Principle. And when you share that spark, or start to act on it, you’re often met with the first emotional barrier: dismissal. People tell you it can't be done, that you don't understand the industry, that you're naïve, or an idealist.

This isn't just criticism; it's a form of social coercion designed to get you to fall back in line with the consensus.

To understand this, we can look to the work of Simon Sinek. He talks about the "circle of safety," but those outside that circle can be hostile to new ideas. He once observed:

"Innovation must start with a belief. A belief that something better is possible. And the first people to believe are often alone."

And he’s right. You are alone. The history of innovation is littered with figures who were initially dismissed.

Take Dr. Barry Marshall. In the 1980s, he proposed that stomach ulcers were caused by bacteria, not stress. The medical community laughed at him. They called his theory "preposterous." He was so frustrated by the rejection that he famously drank a petri dish of the bacteria H. pylori to prove his point. He gave himself an ulcer and then cured it with antibiotics. He won the Nobel Prize in 2005. A similar recent example can be found with Elon Musk & Starlink.

Dr. Marshall's story is a dramatic example, but it highlights a universal truth: being called "ignorant" is often just the first test of your conviction.

The Second Wave - Schadenfreude and Undermining

So, you push past the initial dismissal. But then, things get hard. Maybe a product launch stutters, funding falls through, or a key client walks away. This is when the second wave hits: the laughter, the "I told you so," the active undermining. Some people want to see you fail to prove them right.

This is where the emotional toll really starts to compound. It’s one thing to be called wrong; it’s another to be the subject of schadenfreude—pleasure derived from your misfortune.

The stoic philosophers have wisdom for us here. The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote in his Meditations:

"The opinion of ten thousand men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject."

He’s reminding us to carefully curate our sources of feedback. Is the laughter coming from someone who has built what you're building? Or is it coming from the safety of the sidelines?

In the modern context, this is where the narrative on social media turns toxic. As we've seen, the "scam" narrative emerges. People try to drag you down because your attempt to rise highlights their own inaction.

You have to develop what I call "emotional insulation"—the ability to hear the noise without letting it dictate your internal state. This isn't about ignoring feedback; it's about discerning destructive criticism from constructive criticism.

The Final Insult - Attack on Your Foundation

But what happens when you don't quit? When you look at the setbacks and the critics, and you double down on your belief? This is when the most painful label gets slapped on you: Arrogance or delusion.

Your resilience is reframed as stubbornness. Your conviction is seen as delusion. And because attacking you directly isn't working, the pressure often expands to your support system—your team, your co-founders, and sometimes, your family.

This is the ultimate test of your "why." If your motivation is external—for fame, for approval—this phase will break you. If your motivation is intrinsic, rooted in a deep belief in your mission, you have a chance.

The author Steven Pressfield writes brilliantly about this in his book The War of Art. He calls this negative force "Resistance."

"Resistance is a force of nature. It acts objectively, like gravity. Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work... The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it."

When they call you arrogant, that's Resistance. When they try to bring down your family, that's a profound and ugly form of Resistance. It means you're getting close to something real.

The Toolkit for Emotional Resilience

So, how do you actually withstand this? It’s not about becoming emotionally numb. It’s about building a fortress for your mind.

1. Find Your North Star: Your "why" must be unshakable. Write it down. Revisit it every morning. When the world is screaming that you're wrong, you must have an internal compass that points true north.

2. Curate Your Council: You need a small, trusted circle—a co-founder, a mentor, a partner, a therapist—who understands the journey. As Theodore Roosevelt said in his "Man in the Arena" speech, a speech that is the ultimate anthem for anyone taking a chance:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood..."

Your council are the people in your corner of the arena, not the critics in the cheap seats.

3. Practice Radical Self-Compassion: You will make mistakes. You will feel shame and doubt. The work of psychologist Dr. Kristin Neff is essential here. She defines self-compassion as treating yourself with the same kindness you’d offer a friend. Acknowledge the pain: "This is really hard right now. It’s painful to be laughed at." Then remind yourself of your common humanity: "I'm not the first person to go through this, and I won't be the last."

4. Separate Your Identity from Your Venture: You are not your startup. You are not your innovation. You are a person who is attempting something brave. This creates the psychological space to withstand failure without feeling like you are a failure.

The Reward is in the Striving

The narrative we're sold is that the reward is the IPO, the acquisition, the headline. But for those who have waded through the emotional backlash, the real, lasting reward is the person you become in the process.

The reward is the courage you forged when you were called ignorant.

The reward is the resilience you built when they laughed at you.

The reward is the unshakable integrity you cultivated when they called you arrogant.

The external success is never guaranteed. But the internal transformation—the strength of character, the empathy for other strugglers, the profound understanding of your own capacity—that is a reward that cannot be taken away from you, no matter the outcome.

So, to anyone in the arena right now, facing the dust and sweat and blood, know this: the emotional backlash is a sign that you are a threat to the status quo. And that is the highest compliment a true innovator can receive.

Keep striving.

Thank you for listening. If this resonated with you, please share it with someone who needs to hear it. You can find show notes and more resources on our website. Until next time, have the courage to be wrong, when you know you're right.