“Advice: It’s more fun to give than to receive.”
–Malcolm Forbes
We all need advice as we travel life’s journey, but many of us are too proud to seek it and/or follow it. On the other hand, too many of us go around handing out unsolicited advice as if we were experts on every aspect of life.
Generally, we should be very hesitant to give advice to other adults unless they ask for it. There are, of course, some exceptions. If we believe that a person’s judgment is temporarily impaired because of substance abuse or other special circumstances, we should do what we can to keep that person from hurting himself or others. But only under such special circumstances should we give unsolicited advice. We should definitely not offer unsolicited advice to others in such areas as how to raise their children or how to invest their money.
Far more fruitful than giving advice is to seek to improve ourselves by soliciting advice from those people who are more knowledgeable than us, especially in those areas where we have the least expertise. We are all capable of adding a great deal to our storehouse of of knowledge no matter how well educated we are, and we never become too old to learn new things.
Most great men and women have benefited enormously from the advice of others, and never hesitate to seek advice. We must remember that seeking advice and following it are not the same. We can seek advice from many sources, analyze it, and then decide for ourselves which advice is best. The most important thing of all is to have more than one viewpoint when making an important decision.
Some people see asking others for advice as a sign of weakness, but it is just the opposite. We can all learn from others, and it is a terrible shame to miss the opportunity to do so. For example, some people are so stubborn that when they are having difficulty finding their way to a particular destination, they would rather drive miles out of their way than to stop and ask someone for directions.
We should be glad that there are people who are more intelligent and knowledgeable than us. It gives us the opportunity to improve our own knowledge by learning from them. Truly smart people will attempt to surround themselves with people who are smarter than they are in an effort to enhance their own knowledge.
The problem is that some people are more concerned about appearing to be knowledgeable than they are about actually gaining new knowledge. They seem to enjoy giving advice to others, but rarely seek advice for themselves. I once heard it said that, “It is just as important to appear to be knowledgeable as it is to actually be knowledgeable.” Perhaps this is true, but appearances are never a good substitute for the real thing.
Think about it.
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Copyright 2025
Allen W. Smith
