Are you getting advice from the wrong people?
The Six Percent Entrepreneur
Are you getting advice from the wrong people?
May 31, 2021
In this episode, we talk about getting advice from other people and how to evaluate that advice.
Today we're gonna talk about getting advice from other people and how do you evaluate that advice whether that advice is actually true for us or it's not. So one of the things that I want to first start off by saying is the advice that we get and the experiences that we have are really determined by the people that were hanging out with and the places that we are. 

So for example, one of the things that I did when I was younger is I joined the Marine Corps and one of the reasons I did that was one, I was living in Texas; two, I had a cousin that was in the marines and he would tell me how great his life is etcetera. So I decided that I would join. Another thing is the school that I was going to, it was in a lower socioeconomic area. So they had an ROTC program. So that influenced my decision as well. 

So I decided to join the marines and in the marines, I realized that this place wasn't for me. And I remembered before I joined, I was taking music classes from a piano teacher and the piano teacher that I was with, he was actually in the Air Force and I was telling him yeah that I'm enlisting into the marine corps and this is what I plan to do. And he started asking questions like why do you want to join? And you know, I pretty much started repeating all the literature that they give you and all the commercials and all the propaganda that they feed you in commercials. 

So he just kind of looked at me and I, you know, I was like yeah like it's going to be amazing, they're gonna hand me a sword and I like the ceremonial aspects of it and all this stuff and I like helping people and things. And my music teacher kind of just looked at me stupid and he was like, they're not going to hand you a sword, they're gonna hand you a mop and they're gonna say go clean this. And I didn't listen to him one because I just trusted my cousin way more than I trusted this guy. And then when I ended up joining the marines, he was absolutely right, they don't hand you a sword. They hand you a mop. 

One of the jokes that they have in the Marine Corps is they issue you an MOS number and MOS number is your military occupation special team number. So this is like what number you have that determines what role you have in the marines. And um, for example, 0311 is the number for infantry. So whenever year 0311, you know, this person is an infantry person. But there's a joke in the Marine Corps that everyone's secondary MOS is 0409 and 0409 It's talking about that four oh nine cleaning brand. If you're unaware of it, It's just like a surface cleaner, it's called )409. And that is like the secondary MOS, because we're always cleaning, we're always like cleaning things and it's always about cleaning. 

In the marine corps, as I'm there, I'm thinking, man, I should have went to college instead and we actually had another marine that just joined and his advice was even more different. He was like, don't even bother going to college. I went to college and I wasn't able to find a job later and I ended up having to join the marines anyway, so you just skip that entire step and you did this. But I didn't trust that person either. So I didn't take that advice. And I think now as I'm getting older and I'm learning about who to take advice from and who not to take advice from. So there's this adage that don't take any advice from anyone that isn't already where you want to be. 

So I'm going to go a little bit past that and really you shouldn't take any advice from anyone that hasn't been far removed from where you'd want to be. Meaning, let's say that you are interested in joining the marines. Well, you don't want to talk to a marine because they're drinking the Kool-Aid. They're going to give you advice that relates to the Kool-Aid that they're drinking. You want to talk to someone that's been out for about 10, 15, 20 years to see how it's actually shaped their life. Did it help them? Are they homeless? Are they working? Was it a good stepping stone or was it a good career path? 

And you're only going to find this stuff out by people who have had time to evaluate exactly how their decision has affected them in life. And even then you have to even temper that sentiment a little bit because everyone has their own experiences and it's going to be totally different for you. Um, one of the companies in the corporate world that I loved working for, I absolutely love this company, I love my team and everything. There's people that are really good friends in that company that absolutely hated it. They did not like that company at all. 

So what I'm learning is before I even go seek advice, I want to make sure that this person understands my values and that they value the same thing because if they value different things, then they might be giving you advice or they are definitely giving you advice based on what they value and not what you value. So that advice doesn't mean anything for you. I'll kind of go into one more story after I graduated from my MBA program, I was getting a lot of LinkedIn requests and messages asking people if the program was worth it and to me, you know, I was still in the Kool-Aid, still drinking it. I had a fantastic time and I was like, yeah, it's definitely worth it. 

But now it's been over five years since I went to business school and I've learned that that was probably not the best decision. I mean, I'm still happy with my decision because of some of the skills that I picked up. But now that I know what I know, I could have picked up these skills in a different way, and perhaps if I had talked to someone that was far removed from the program, For example, if you are interested in getting an MBA right now and you talk to me, I will probably give you advice on how you can get the most out of an MBA program without ever going to an MBA program. So how you can either self-study or acquire this knowledge or experience in some other way. 

So that's what I wanted to talk about today. If you are trying to get advice, make sure you're getting it from the right people, make sure that this person is far removed. And on top of that don't confirm your bias. So what I mean by this is if you already have an idea, let's say that your belief is that the Marine Corps, for example, is going to be an awesome experience for you. Then go talk to people that have the opposite view and try to really understand what they're saying and then try to balance those pros and cons out. Of course, especially at six percenter entrepreneurs. We are stubborn, so sometimes we just have to figure this out ourselves and make these mistakes. But talking to the right people can help hopefully help you make better decisions. Hope this helps. This is Robin Copernicus. Boom, Bam. I'm out. 

Continue your journey with me on my other channels:

Follow Me

Instagram:  https://robin.ws/instagram

Facebook:  https://robin.ws/fb-page

YouTube: https://robin.ws/youtube

Visionaries Group: https://robin.ws/group

Clubhouse: @rbn - https://robin.ws/clubhouse 


My Growth Hack Secrets Podcast: https://growthhacksecrets.com

Blog: https://robincopernicus.com 

Book: https://mvmbook.com 


Book a Call:
https://robin.ws/call 

https://launchwithrobin.com