Take My Advice

As some of my readers may know, I am a SCORE business counselor and I believe that I am a good one; certainly not because I know all the answers - which I don’t. (As a matter of fact I often tell my clients that only 90% of what I tell them is true; it’s up to them to figure out which is the other 10%.) My strength as a counselor is three-fold. First of all, I know what I don’t know. (You’d be surprised how many people don’t know what they don’t know.) Secondly, I am not afraid to say, "I don’t know." when that is the case. And thirdly, I have a personal network of friends and associates who usually know about whatever I don’t.

I just returned from a SCORE counseling session with one of my SCORE clients. It was a somewhat frustrating but not atypical session. The client came to me for advice and I was prepared to give it to her. Unfortunately she was the type of person who really wants to get the advice that confirms what she already believes. Therefore, any contrary opinion or advice is very likely to fall on deaf ears. I am always tempted to confront such people with, "Do you want the truth or do you want me to tell you what you already think is the truth?"

Too many people will insist they want to hear the truth but really don’t. So anything that you tell them will be a waste of your time – and theirs too. Here’s another example of that sort of thing.

You have a business selling a product or service. You get a call one day complaining about your product. Some people in that position will spend an inordinate amount of time denying that there’s a problem or defending the product. And maybe there is really nothing wrong and it’s just a crank call from a customer you can never satisfy. But what if there really is a problem? Wouldn’t it be a lot better to honestly admit it (if only to yourself) and start to work on a solution? Denying a problem when one really exists is just another way of not wanting to hear the truth just like refusing to listen to good advice.

A long time ago I realized that the world is made up of people who are knowledgeable and successful and people who will never be successful. Right then I made up my mind to associate with the successful people as much as possible. If I need medical advice, should I go to the doctor who was at the bottom of his graduating class in medical school? If I need business advice should I go to the guy who has had five business failures and not one successful one? And then, having gone to one of those successful people, should I heed his advice or ignore it? If I am feeling sick and my doctor prescribes some medication, would I throw the prescription away when I leave his office? Why pay for his advice and then ignore it?

Fortunately, a fair percentage of the clients we SCORE counselors talk to, listen to our advice and follow it. Those clients almost always succeed. Some clients we advise not to start a business because they’re not ready. If those clients listen to us, they don’t fail because they realize they need more experience or more capital or more knowledge before starting the business. Yes, not failing can also be a success.

© 2008 by Paul Burri