A Piece of Advice — Don’t Take Too Much Advice

Advice. It’s everywhere. It seems that everyone knows the solution to every problem you have, and everyone is eager to share his input and tell you how to save your sinking ships. If you can’t find any advice on fixing your problems, you likely haven’t asked anyone for help. Because people will give you advice even when you’re not seeking it.

Are you trying to build your personal brand online and offline? Are you a blogger? Does your blog suck? Do you want to make your blog more attractive to readers? There are plenty of resources for you to find the tried and true methods of appealing to readers and helping your blog to grow and prosper. They’ll tell you what thousands of others have done, and you can do it too!

There’s one problem with following someone else’s advice – if you’re trying to differentiate yourself and stand out from the crowd, following other people’s advice (and therefore following routines that have worked for them) may make you too much like all the others. Of course, that would happen only if you take it to the extreme, which I hope you never do. But some people do take advice too much to the heart. As soon as someone recommends something, these people rush out to make what someone else deems to be appropriate changes.

Advice is just that — advice. It’s not a group of orders or a blueprint. It’s a recommendation. And you can take it or leave it. But what works for me may not work for you, especially in terms of blogging or personal branding or marketing. Your mission and your audience may be completely different. Or your strengths may be different from mine. Maybe it’s not worth it for us to try each other’s methods.

So when others give you advice, thank them and consider what they’ve said. But don’t feel obligated to execute their recommendations. Just follow this one little piece of advice – don’t take too much advice.

Tagged as: advice