Take the Advice

No matter the situation you find yourself in, chances are someone else has been there. There’s a good chance that they would be willing to guide you through it. It’s easy to try to live life on an island and try to do everything on your own, but it’s important to seek out those mentors and coaches who are willing to help you along the way.

A mentor is a trusted person who can see the path we are on from an outside perspective and offer unbiased guidance and coaching to help us find the right path. Or maybe that mentor has been in your situation before, made a decision, and found himself going where he didn’t want to be. The knowledge learned from those decisions can help you find the right path. A mentor is not a perfect person, but someone who has learned from past mistakes and is willing to share what they have learned. It doesn’t have to be someone you see every day, but perhaps someone you meet once a month for a coffee and share about your life.

I’ve had various mentors throughout my life, aside from my parents, of course. Teachers are always great sources of advice and wisdom. They are the ones who are truly trying to make a difference in kids' lives and will often take a few extra moments to offer any advice they can share. Pastors and church workers are also great resources, even if you just need someone to listen. My high school youth pastor was someone I always looked to for advice when I was in the weeds.

I had a history teacher in high school, who I am still connected with on some level, who took me under his wing. I would go back and visit him as a senior when I had a few free moments between classes. As a teacher first and a soccer coach second, he had a unique perspective on the potential of high school kids as they were about to go off into the world of college. I still have a letter he wrote me at the end of the school year.

Sometimes, the advice we receive comes from an unlikely place. A few weeks ago, I got a LinkedIn notification that Gary Vaynerchuk wanted to connect with me. I’m not exactly sure why he would want to connect with me, but I accepted. He messaged me soon after. We chatted back and forth until he invited me to participate in a blockchain group for Web 3.0. That’s not really my space, so I let it go. But during our conversations, he asked me what I do. When I told him that I sell truck parts and write on the side, he encouraged me to dive into writing, especially about business, with the usual Garyvee vibrato. About a week later, I went to message him back and thank him for the advice, but in the place of the message was a note from LinkedIn letting me know that the message had been flagged and would be removed. It turned out to be a bot the whole time.

So, advice can come from anywhere, especially when you don’t expect it. The key is what you do with the advice after you receive it. You are going to have to recognize that you needed the advice in the first place and that maybe the person in front of you knows a thing or two. Take the advice. It will take work, but chances are you’ll end up in a better place than where you were headed.

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