The professional lives under a terrible curse: they can never look stupid. Stupid is a death blow to the consultant, creative professional, marketer, or PR professional. Looking stupid ruins your credibility, loses business and gets you taken off all the lists that you want to be on. Stupid people are shunned, omitted from all the best gatherings and worst of all, they are ignored. Who would want to be stupid, especially in the “always on” public sphere of social media?

Here’s the really stupid thing about all of this, though: some people who look profoundly stupid turn out to be incredibly successful. And trust me, it’s not because of their incredible physical attributes. Well, not all of the time.