How many advice did you receive today from the so-called ‘experts’?
Let me guess 5, 10, 20? I know this because I meet these experts everywhere, they claim to know exactly how to deal with every kind of situation that we are in. The question to ask ourselves is
- Is this guy/girl worth listening to?
- Is it worth investing my time following his/her advice?
How can we be sure that we are not wasting our time and energy by following someone’s advice, which may not help us get out of our situation?
Checklist to identify the ‘expert’
I compiled this checklist to verify is the guy/girl who is advising me is worth listening to
- Is this guy someone that I can count on?
- Does this guy has the necessary experience in this field?
- Does this guy has successfully implemented what he is suggesting to me to do?
- What is his intention? does he really wants to help me and to see me succeed or he is someone who is just an attention seeker?
- In the past, did he spent time understanding my situation and followed up to see me sail through the situation?
Imagine a Scenario: Someone advises you on how to do business.
Check, whether this advisor has any business experience and succeeded in his venture. If he is, then you can consider listening to his advice and you take your own decision whether to act on them. If this guy has no past business experience, then take his advice with a ton of salt. If this guy has business experience but didn’t succeed, then you can consider his advice on what ‘not to do’ and downplay his advice on ‘what is the right thing to do’ as he himself hasn’t cracked it yet.
Cost of a wrong advice
sometimes a piece of wrong advice may account for a loss of a few hours and at times it may lead to huge financial losses and may cause mental trauma and beyond that. Always exercise discretion while listening to ‘Experts’ I know it is a tricky situation and there is no silver bullet. I remember a line from the movie ‘Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time’ – “A true King considers the advice of counsel but always listens to his heart“
