"Oblivious Arrogance" and Why I Despised College

Welcome back to The Intelligent Marketer, where over 15,990 growth-minded founders, agency owners, and marketers go to learn modern marketing strategies.

There’s a quote that hits harder the longer you’re in business:

I didn’t fully understand when I first heard it, but looking back, I spent four years rooted in the meaning of this (I’m guessing many of you did too).

Small liberal arts college.

Central Illinois.

Business department full of people who had never run a business.

But they walked the halls with the confidence of operators.

Writing course material on “business” and “marketing strategy,” yet had never signed a lease, hired a team, or risked their own money.

It wasn’t malice. It wasn’t laziness.

It was oblivious arrogance.

A blind spot so big you couldn’t see around it.

They truly believed they understood business because they had studied it.

But there’s a chasm between theory and lived experience.

And no amount of case studies can substitute for actual risk.

Here’s why I bring this up now:

This same dynamic shows up every day in marketing.

People giving advice with no skin in the game.

Twitter bros writing tweets about something they’ve never actually done.

Marketers optimizing for awards instead of revenue.

Agencies pitching playbooks they’ve never actually run for themselves.

What makes it dangerous is they truly believe what they’re saying.

It’s not the loud, obvious frauds you have to watch out for.

It’s the well-meaning “experts” who are completely confident in something that’s just… wrong.

And if you’re not careful, that confidence can be contagious.

The best marketers I know?

They lead with curiosity.

They’ve tested, failed, shipped, and learned.

They’re not arrogant. They’re observant.

That’s the mindset I try to bring to this newsletter, and to the work.

Every week, we’ll dig into what’s working, what’s broken, and what’s worth rethinking (and other realizations I have like today as they come up).

See you next Friday.

– Eric
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