Good Advice

As someone who provides legal services for a living, I sometimes ask myself “What exactly is good advice?” In a business setting, the most immediate answer is that good advice helps clients avoid poor judgments in trusting other people. It could mean providing a different perspective on the situation in which the clients find themselves. In all cases, good advice takes clarity and a somewhat accurate understanding of the circumstances on hand. It requires the advisor to formulate his expectations in realistic and practical ways. All of which leads to the need for actual experience in the matter on hand. If clients make mistakes, it usually is mostly due to lack of experience. That’s why younger people tend to make mistakes more often than comparably smart adults. The only substitutes for experience are good advice and good analysis. Good advice requires you to cultivate good relationships. Good advice also takes some luck in finding the right people at the right time. Good analysis requires you to collect accurate information about the situation. To check for your own blind spots. To be aware of your emotional biases. All of which will lead you to making better judgments. But why do we need advice and why do we need better judgments? Poor judgments will cost you – time, effort, health, opportunities. These are your main resources as a person and you can’t be too wasteful of them. Nobody can afford to make too many mistakes. A good advice helps you to utilize your intelligence to protect yourself from being taken advantage of. To stand up for yourself. If you are naïve and make mistakes (which one inevitably does), then at least learn from them. Do not let people convince you that agreeing to something which is not in your own best interest is some sort of virtue or sign of moral purity. It is not that. If someone is trying to present your mistakes as a positive feature, then that person is likely taking advantage of you. Figure out how and extricate yourself away from that person’s influence. That should qualify as good advice. 

P.S. This impromptu essay on the topic of good advice is just a placeholder for a blog feature of this website, which may or may not materialize. Stay tuned.