This is a post I’ve wanted to write for a long time. But you know… we all get busy and other stuff took priority.
But this morning someone sent me a thank you message for being “candid and honest” about something I wrote on someone else’s Facebook post. The original post was by an extremely prominent person in our industry who is trusted by… well… pretty much everyone.
The post was a software recommendation. Almost immediately people started falling over themselves to try this new software, despite most of them already having systems that worked. As a result, a bunch of people lost hours to weeks of productivity for nothing.
Maybe they thought it could save them some money. Maybe they thought it would something in their business. But based on what I’ve seen on posts like this over and over again… my guess is many people place so much trust in mini-celebrities that they hang off every word they say… even when it’s detrimental to their business.
In other words, they have a nasty case of hero-worship.
And hero worship is fucking bad for you.
Is there someone in your space where if you met them in real life you’d go all “giddy school girl” on them?
If so, this post is for you.
But first… I’m not saying that by being excited to meet someone, you’re screwed. I’m just saying you should be careful when reading/hearing advice from that person.
That’s not because their advice is bad, but because not everything they say and do will be the best thing for you. Blindly following everything they say (which I see way too many people doing) has a good chance of wasting your time and even sending you backwards on your journey to success.
There are a ton of clever cookies with great advice on this planet. But every business (and person) is different. Humans are prone to making mistakes. The law of averages says that at some point some bad advice will be given.
So what does this all mean for you?
You’re not an idiot. Start trusting yourself a bit more. Do you own research on EVERYTHING. Be skeptical of ALL advice until you’ve done some due diligence, or at least thought it through for a while.
Even if everyone is jumping on it.
ESPECIALLY if everyone is jumping on it.
ESPECIALLY if it’s from someone that’s a mini-celebrity in your eyes. The excitement will cloud your judgement, so take a step back and really think about it. It’s ok to disregard something as not applicable to you.