Who are you listening to and what is it really costing you?

A free article on People Skills

By: James Delrojo

One of my favorite quotations is from the actor George Burns. He said "it's a pity that all the people who really know how to run this country are too busy driving taxis or cutting hair."

Are you taking your success advice from taxi drivers, hairdressers or other people who don't really have the runs on the board in the area that they are advising you?

Let's have a look at the people who freely offer advice for how you should be running your life.

Your Family

Families are usually the first to offer advice on anything. I'm sure that the intention behind family advice is almost always good but good intentions don't make you rich.

If your father is a successful businessman then his business advice is probably worth listening to. However if your father is a factory worker who has spent his whole life struggling to meet the bills then he is probably not the best person to be seeking business advice from.

Love your family but weigh their advice against their experience and success.

Your Friends

Most people's friends are extremely influential on their life. There is a Japanese proverb that translates as "When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends."

Your friends are not only advising you verbally but they are also "advising" you on how to live your life by the way that they are living their life.

The best way to ensure that you are getting good advice from your friends is to pick friends who are already like the person that you want to become.

Professionals

Many people go to professionals for advice, which is fine if that profession restricts his or her advice to the area in which they have expertise. However, often a professional will give you advice that they are really not qualified to give.

A classic example is accountants. Many business owners are taking business advice from their accountant. Well an accountants job is to keep your books and to help minimize the tax you pay not to tell you how to run your business. There's an old joke in the business world that says "appoint an accountant as the president of your company and you'll be bankrupt within a year."

Most accountants focus on cutting costs and they seem to have difficulty in discriminating between a business expense and a business investment.

I personally saw a business of around 200 staff appoint an accountant to the president's position, in a time when the market was very difficult. He decided that they should cut staff and so he looked at what the various staff members were being paid. He noticed that the highest paid employees were the salesmen so he halved the sales force.

Within a year the company had dropped to ten employees in total and was barely surviving. A year later the business was gone. This was a business that had prospered for 20 years prior to his arrival.

Seeking professional advice is a great idea but make sure that the advice stays within the professional's area of expertise.

And now a question for you!

Who have you been taking advice from and how has it been serving you?

James Delrojo would like to help you by giving you his
ebook "Unleash the Success Power of Your Mind"
(valued at $27) completely FREE.
Go to http://www.YourSuccessMind.com