Pay No Attention To "Free Advice"

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Pay No Attention To "Free Advice"

It's Worth What You Pay For It

by Michael D. Hume, M.S.

Years ago, I was a professional stage actor in Colorado. What this means, of course, is that I became very good at cleaning toilets and waiting tables. I did make most of my living onstage, but with a young family to support, it was never enough. Between shows (and even during shows) I worked whatever jobs I could find.
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Once, hoping to improve the family's dough situation, I took a commission-only sales job. I learned to sell water conditioners, door-to-door. The job didn't last long (I landed a good role in a decent-paying show), but it gave me two things I still value today. First, the sales training they put me through was invaluable. Second, the job taught me the value of free advice: zero, usually.

Throughout my training program, everyone from my wife to my friends assured me this water conditioner sales job would never work out, and would never pay me a dime. In my first week, I sold several units, and made as much money as I'd ever made in my life, to that point. I was glad I hadn't taken the well-intended free advice of my loved ones to drop out of the job during training.

A few years later I was still acting (and moonlighting in theater ticket sales, which made sense) when a dear friend convinced me to get into life insurance annuity sales with his team. It was commission-only, again, and sure enough: those two words "commission only" brought out a major reprise of the free advice. Better quit. It'll never work. You won't make any money.

I was fifth in the nation in sales after my first month. I'd still be doing that job if I hadn't landed another hot acting part.

Even years later, when I was finishing grad school and starting my executive coaching career, the guys with whom I was singing acappella at the time told me that job would never pay off. "I don't think it's even real," was one representative quote from a buddy. Executive coaching was a new concept back then, so I don't blame them for their skepticism. But I didn't take the well-intended free advice to dump the opportunity and look for a "real job." Maybe I should've. That job only lasted a little over 13 years and paid me well over a million dollars during that time. It also allowed me a graceful transition away from the song-and-dance trade, leaving that work for younger folks.
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Just last night, I got a call from a dear family member who told me three times in the space of a few minutes that I'd never make any money in my venture into online entrepreneurship. We'll see.

Sure, this "free advice" is well-intended, and I appreciate the concern my loved ones have for me. I really do. There are times in my life when I could've benefited from better advice, no doubt. But in the fullness of time, I do have a winning record against the forbidding warnings of free advice.

So I'm gonna keep going. And so should you. Start that business... you can make it work, and there's help out there for you. Start that health kick... you'll drop that weight and you'll feel great. Start that investment program... the "smart money" going the other direction is probably not as smart as it thinks it is.

When you get inspired to take on something tough, you're bound to get free advice that you can't make it work. Generally, you should thank the advisor but ignore the advice. If everyone who'd ever been advised against a risky venture had heeded the free advice, nothing great would ever have been accomplished by the human race.

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