I've just read two funny and thought provoking telegraph articles, one listed advice a bunch of famous, successful and thoughtful people have been given, the other listed advice the same people would like to pass on.
It got me thinking: what would my contributions have been?
The best advice I ever received (that I can recall) was easy to figure out: "Fake it until you Make it". It wasn't advice to cheat, but rather to have faith in myself, to act confidently because I knew what I was talking about, but my lack of self-confidence stopped people seeing that. It worked, but I still remain suspicious of overly confident people. A little humility can go a looooong way.
The best advice I'd like to give? Hmmm. Not so easy. I first thought of the sentence I wrote above, "A little humility can go a looooong way". But then I changed my mind since I wasn't sure if it was good advice or not (ha ha). Instead, I'd like to suggest what I call "Bob's Principal". It's from my little book, Rocks Into Gold, and I've italicised it below:
Eugene stopped outside the office building and he asked Bob to explain just how he came up with this simple but devastatingly effective solution.
Bob shrugged then said that he had just thought about things a lot, and tried to figure out how to solve his problem by solving other people’s problems.
The hardest part, he said, was figuring out what the other people’s problems were. There wasn’t much more to it than that, he told Eugene.
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So, I have two questions for you:
- What's the best advice you've ever received?
- What advice would you like to offer others?
Honestly, I'd love to hear you answers. Please, add a comment or email me at clarke.ching@gmail.com. I collate all of your answers then publish them all together.
