Last night I received some great business advice from a friend. She was surprised that she was giving advice to me. I was surprised that she was surprised because she has more experience than I do and also has achieved a tremendous amount of success. It was natural for me to listen to her and I appreciate the advice.
Taking advice is not always easy. For me, I must respect the person giving the advice. They need to have proven experience or really good intuition. I do, however, give a lot of advice. A lot. Some of the advice that I serve up might actually be good.
This got me thinking about how others take advice. A few weeks ago I complimented a friend on his nature to share information with his competitors. He is a leader in his field, has successfully experimented with new things and openly shares his knowledge so that he can help his peers find their own success. I admire him for this. His response to my compliment was that he can be as helpful as possible, but he can only help those that are willing to accept advice and act upon it. This was profound to me. I look at his advice as a gift. If I were his competition I would embrace it and run with it. I would thank him.
Sure, not all advice is good for everyone and sometimes you have to get advice from a variety of perspectives to formulate your action. But, you have to listen. You have to be open to suggestions. You have to take advantage of other people’s successes and failures. You have resources, use them.