At any point when I assess different decisions I have made, there are always a number of them that are entirely dependent upon what other people think of me.
It's not a great measure for anything, really. The idea that another person's opinion could make the difference in how you choose to live your life is a big deal.
It's why I believe more people need to get comfortable with “looking dumb”.
Think about it. Riding a bike starts with training wheels. We have to go through driver's training and testing before we are legally operating a vehicle on the road. Ice skating, skate boarding, Surfing—don't get me started.
If you try anything new in life, you'll probably look silly doing it the first few times (maybe more). It's necessary.
Life is about being a rookie and then leveling up to veteran status. Whatever gets thrown at us, we're going to make mistakes. We're going to look dumb at certain points. We must in order to get where we ultimately want to go.
If you're too afraid to look dumb—If your life is largely dictated by the opinions of others—then the journey will not be a very fun ride.
You'll avoid new challenges, you'll be afraid to learn new things, and you'll rarely step out of your comfort bubble.
You'll give in to peer-pressure all too often, you'll lack the confidence to form your own opinions, and you'll basically march to the beat of someone else's drum.
That all sounds pretty awful to me. Often times we have to endure feeling like a fool if we're ever going to be good at anything.
So in short—look dumb. It'll be fine. You'll be better off for it.