Be Careful How You Take Advice
Input, advice and counsel; they're all important elements of success and we need to take in seriously what others have to say. At the same time, there's a paradox within advice and counsel that exists alongside of it, and that is that we also have to be very careful how we listen to what is being said.
When Sam Walton initiated his plan for Wal-Mart (WMT), he wasn't even taken seriously by the competition that was directly across the street from him. Nobody believed that a small town would or could support a discount retailer.
But what in reality happened is what was considered a pathetic store in a pathetic town in a pathetic state - considered in the middle of nowhere - produced a 28 percent annual growth rate over the first five years. In the state of Arkansas he became the leading variety, retail store operator.
There were very few people who would have given him the advice to go for it. There were those that believed he was crazy to attempt to do what he did.
What we need to take from this is that in certain areas of advice we need to listen, in other advice we need to just let it go in one ear and out the other.
Many well-meaning people try to talk people out of pursuing the businesses they believe in or ideas they have to improve a business. We really need to have filters on that rigorously sift through what everybody tells us about what we're doing. The best thing is to go out and do it and let the market tell you if you're seeing and doing it right. In the end, they're the only ones that matter.
Other Walton Sources:
The Most Underrated CEO Ever The legendary Sam Walton
Sam Walton: The Power of Persistence
Sam Walton Business Quotes for Ya
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