“So, influenced by these advisors and this hope, I have at length allowed my friends to publish the work, as they had long besought me to do.” –Nicolaus Copernicus
How do advisors and advice show up in your life? Do you keep your beliefs and dreams of what you want to do, accomplish and fulfill to yourself…or share them with others?
There’s lots of competing advice on advice. Much prevailing wisdom says that advice is simply the thicket of conventional thinking we have to blaze a trail through. Have people tell you what can’t be done, and then go do it.
Then there are examples like Copernicus’s statement above, when he agreed to the publishing of his blasphemous ideas of the earth circling the sun (vs. vice versa) only at the urging of his advisors.
Where is the healthiest place to fall with advisors, in between these extremes?
Often good ideas, inspired initiaves and splendid plans can grow forever dusty when we keep them to ourselves out of fear of theirs or our own imperfection. For some reason, we don’t see the ideas or ourselves as perfected or generally accepted yet. Copernicus’s “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies” sat on his desk for 36 years before it was published.
But on the other hand, the family, friends and “experts” we consult can often give so generously of their wisdom as to the impossibility of what we envision that we can become even more afraid and frozen in our tracks.
In the final analysis, a commitment to action however, in one way or another, keeps us moving forward.
Informed and carefully chosen opinions may be helpful…if not necessarily treated as the Bible but “opinions.”
They can offer us insight on the holes in our plans before we get out on the water sailing them. But, at the very least, they inspire us by gaining either agreement or gumption-to-prove in the face of no agreement.
We ultimately learn, however, by action.
Got feedback?
“The best advisors…give us, out of themselves, the ardent spirit and desire to act right, and leave us then, even through many blunders, to find out what our own form of right action is.” –Phillip Brooks
DARRELL W. GURNEY, Executive/ Career Coach and 20-year recruiting veteran, supports people at all levels to make fulfilling and profitable career transitions. His first book, Headhunters Revealed! Career Secrets for Choosing and Using Professional Recruiters, was winner of the Clarion Award for Best Book by the Association for Women in Communications and was reviewed in Publishers Weekly. His newest book, Never Apply for a Job Again: Break the Rules, Cut the Line, Beat the Rest, has been endorsed by bestselling thought leaders such as Harvey Mackay, Keith Ferrazzi, and Dr. Ivan Misner. A personal and business brand strategist, Darrell’s Stealth Method of networking has helped folks expand their reach within both careers and new client circles. He speaks, leads workshops, and is a media expert on subjects such as recruiting, networking, and finding one’s passion. He was recently named Networking Expert for BeyondB-School.com and offers webinars and programs that get MBA students and working professionals out, connected, and landed.
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