The Wonderful Idiot’s Guide to Learning at Work

TL;DR

If you want to lead better, collaborate deeper, and enjoy your work more - embrace the part of you that doesn’t know. Be the wonderful idiot. It’s more powerful than it sounds.

The Story

I went to Clown school.

It remains one of the hardest things I have ever done.

Legit.

More tears than anything I have done in my life, and I have had my heart broken properly four times.

I had studied acting for most of my life, done two uni degrees in performance, and graduated from one of Australia's top acting schools.

So I figured I was ready - ready to be amazing, awesome, THE BEST - and decided to study clown at the world’s best clown school with the world’s most famous clown teacher.

Only problem was: I was actually quite bad.

Every time I got on stage to make my fellow classmates laugh (and maybe, possibly, my hero-teacher), I was met with silence, confused faces, and the occasional shaking head.

They were right.

I was not funny.

I was not fun.

I was not free.

I was not doing my job.

A clown’s job is simple (and the hardest thing ever):

To connect to an audience with such openness and vulnerability that they see themselves in you while you discover something about the world with them.

When you can do that, the audience will laugh with you, cry with you, feel with you.

It’s a kind of magic.

But I wasn’t doing that.

I was on stage trying to prove how good I was.

I wanted applause for my skill, approval for my training, and maybe a trophy that read: “Has Completed Performing Arts. Please Fold Up the Stage and Go Home.”

So I bashed my head against that wall for weeks.

Until…

One day, I got on stage, was given a random task, and told to “talk to the audience and be funny.” I had nothing left. I had realised how little I knew.

I felt like a beginner again - like the kid in their first acting class.

And as I started to talk… I gave up.

Not on the work. But on winning.

On being the best.

On performing.

I started to cry.

And babble.

About how crap I was.

About how I had travelled all the way to France just to find out I was a shit clown.

And how all I wanted was for them to love me.

And then… they laughed.

Not at me. With me.

Because for the first time, I showed them what I’d been hiding:

The beginner.

The learner.

The child.

And they connected with it. And I connected with them.

It was secular magic. Ugh, it still gives me chills.

And then something clicked - because at the time I was also reading Brene Brown’s The Gifts of Imperfection.

Dr. Brene (another hero of mine) writes about why vulnerability makes us better leaders, colleagues, collaborators, and friends.

Vulnerability is the launchpad for creativity, connection, joy, innovation - all the good stuff.

And as I came off stage, feeling raw and wrecked and a little bit electric, my other hero - Philippe Gaulier, the world’s best clown teacher - said something I’ll never forget:

“He is a wonderful idiot, no?”

Then he turned to me directly and said:

“For weeks now we have seen you get up here and pretend to be something you are not, and we hate it because we can see who you are. Now you show us that and we love it. Never lie to us again.”

The Point

When we accept and live the truth that we are always learners, change makes us beginners again, that allows us to be open, connected, and present.

We get to show up as the leaders and collaborators the world needs now. In a world where AI does the fast and efficient, it’s the human stuff that matters more.

So be the wonderful idiot.
Show up as the learner.
Ask questions. Dig deeper.

That’s how you:

• Involve the team’s full wisdom.

• Shift from being the hero to hero-ing the group.

• Ditch the ego in favour of curiosity.

• Actually enjoy your damn day.

And most of all, it’s how you get to play again. To feel the joy of discovering something new. To remember what it felt like to begin.

Good luck, fellow wonderful idiots.
Here’s hoping you suck at something today - and learn something beautiful in the process.

If you’re looking for ways to embrace your inner Wonderful Idiot this week, we have some ideas…

1. Ask someone “lower” in a formal hierarchy to teach you something. (Yeah, we know… “lower” is an awkward word. Blame English.) It could be a colleague, a report, your niece, your neighbour’s kid. The trick is: choose someone who knows something you don’t. Be curious. Be playful. Be the learner. Then notice: What changes in you? What changes in them? What changes between you?

2. Wear a badge that says: ‘Person in Training’. We’re actually printing some. Hit us up if you want one. It’s a reminder: the best people lead from a learning mindset. Every day is a school day.

3. Start and end your week with reflection. Ask: What do I want to learn this week?Then ask: What did I actually learn? This tiny loop makes learning sticky. Want a deeper dive into reflective practice? We made a whole blog about that.