The 21st-century world is complicated. And when we’re looking to do complicated things, we generally look around for advice.
That’s just smart. If you’re working on a project with lots of moving pieces, it’s a good idea to find someone who’s put that puzzle together before.
Business is a particularly interesting puzzle. There are a lot of ways to put it together. And when we figure it out, the prizes are great.
But business (particularly digital business) is also, as we all know, a topic with epic quantities of terrible advice.
This is a huge topic. But today, I thought I’d share a few resources on how to spot advice that can lead you right over the edge of a very expensive cliff.
Let’s jump in:
#1: Know how to spot a predator
There are a few toxic “guru” types out there who use predatory tactics to get folks to buy from them. This often involves setting up a cult-like environment where you are innately helpless and weak, and only this guru can save you.
It looks a lot like the abusive techniques used by so-called “pick-up artists.” The predator convinces you that the only worth you will ever have has to come from them.
I wrote about this in more depth for The Slow Business Fix. (We’ll pick that publication up again at some point — it got mightily derailed by the pandemic.)
And if you want to see something that got a bunch of people mad at me (sorry, not sorry), check out this post I wrote about the fable of the frog and the scorpion: Who Do You Trust for Online Business Advice?
Alas, the Third Tribe community has come and gone. It was amazing while it lasted, and one of these days I just might get something like that going again.
#2: Watch for dangerous oversimplification
I’ve been enjoying Tara McMullin’s work so much lately, and I thought this post from her was exceptional:
Before You Share Another Business Cliché, Consider This
Tara talks about the “thought-terminating clichés” that make up so much popular business advice. Phrases like, “that’s a self-limiting belief!” or “leap and the net will appear!”
Like most clichés, these statements are not universally wrong. They just tend to be gross oversimplifications of complex situations.
The reality is, most business owners are oddballs. We have more than our share of neurodiversity, learning differences, personality quirks, and traits that make us march to different drummers.
There’s a reason Brian Clark calls one of his key projects Unemployable. Lots of us who start businesses have a hard time squeezing into traditional molds.
So if business owners tend to have an unusual makeup, you can see where oversimplified clichés are going to backfire.
- Do you have imposter syndrome? Maybe. Or maybe your brain is wired in a way that’s always made people underestimate and dismiss you, so you tend to second guess yourself.
- Do you just need to keep the faith no matter what? Well, if your business idea has a fundamental flaw in it, giving up (on this idea, but not your larger goal) is probably something to consider.
I do believe in business advice. Not only do I give an awful lot of it out, I’ve also benefited from taking lots of good advice.
But the best trick I can teach you is to assemble the right advice for you into a framework that honors your individual differences and preferences.
#3: Keep an eye out for your teacher’s blind spots
Everyone on this earth has blind spots. Me, you, the Dalai Lama.
We forget that our successes were partly due to luck and privilege.
We forget that what worked for us might not work at all for someone else, even someone who superficially resembles us.
And we forget that our right way won’t be everyone’s right way.
I believe in teachers, and am deeply grateful for the folks who have taught me about business. But I also try to remember that any of those folks could have a blind spot that might lead me right off a cliff.
You are the best map-maker for your own project
Even though you are flawed and you might have an inconvenient brain and there are things you don’t know. (That describes pretty much all of us.)
My then-colleague Pamela Wilson once wrote that you make the map as you walk the path.
Courses, books, and programs are good things. They’ll help you avoid the most common early mistakes. They show us the key features and pitfalls. Sometimes they’re essential.
But they’re just starting guides to doing the work for ourselves.
That’s The Fierce for this week!
Sonia
