It’s probably outdated
Most advice comes after the facts.
When someone comes with advice 9 out of 10 times, it comes after their success. So when someone says they were successful. They probably did these things a while back. What worked for someone in the past will likely not work for someone in the future.
Survivorship bias
The ones who got in the position to give advice were probably those who survived to tell the tale. It could be that 500 other companies tried the same strategy but did not have the luck or some other factor that influenced the outcome.
It’s an iterative process
Something that works does not work overnight. It takes months and years of iteration. Those iterations bring many lessons and insights. Just executing straightforward advice is silly because you’ll don’t have the wisdom from years and months of iterating, leading to a winning tactic.
It’s highly subjective
It’s what worked for those people. They could execute the tactics because of their background, context, prior experience, and luck. You are a different cookie. What worked for them at that time will probably not work for you.
I’m not saying you should not be open to advice.
I’m saying you should always be sceptical when dealing with advice.
When hearing, reading or listening to advise, always ask yourself:
- Is this still applicable in my current circumstances?
- What was true for them that isn’t true for me at this time?
- Is this person a survivor, or did they genuinely do something different?
- Is this person still in the weeds, or did they succeed a long time ago?