Should You Listen To Your Family & Friend's Advice?
It all depends on the advice, the source and situation. When was the last time you used your microwave oven as a GPS device to find directions to a restaurant? Hopefully never. A microwave was built to cook food but damn sure wasn't built to lead you to it!
It Just Doesn't Add Up!
But yet, many of us will seek the advice from family members, friends and co-workers who've never been where we want to go! Now really let that marinate in your mind. Don't get offended by it. We all love our family and friends. (Well most of them.) However our family and friends will usually provide advice based on their own limited experiences, fears and doubts. But I'm here to tell you, that you're not like them.
Their experience or fears don't necessarily mean they will be your own. There is a reason that entrepreneurs are a minority. 99.9% of the population doesn't have the balls for it! (excuse my french!) We're an elite group here at WA. We've all made the decision that what's great for the rest of society isn't good enough for us or our families.
The World Is Flat...
Remember when people thought the world was flat? That's basically how most of your family and friends will view this venture and anything that requires growth. To them, you might as well say you're the tooth fairy or a damn unicorn. That's how unbelievable the life you're embarking on is to them. So how can you really ask them for their advice?
When I was coming up in this business, everyone thought I was smoking that "stuff"! They said I would never be able to work at home. Fortunately I'm the type of personality that if you tell me I can't do something I will work relentlessly to prove you wrong and make you eat your words.
It's very interesting to hear from family, friends and co-workers now. I hear a lot more of, "Oh I always knew you could do it!". "I was just scared for you". Blah, blah, blah, blah. LOL Don't get me wrong I know the intentions of my family and friends were rooted in good. However I also recognized that the advice I was getting were from people that never moved outside the blueprint set for them by society. So I held their opinion in lesser regard when it came to this industry.
Birds Of A Feather Flock Together
If you want advice about something, be sure you're asking people that have been successful at what you want to do. After all, they've proven that they have the recipe for success. Your job is to seek the advice of people that have the ingredients so you can bake your own success story.
With that said here's a great quote to help you with this concept.
So what do you guys think? Did you ask advice of family and friends about this business? What kind of great or poor advice did they give you? Did you listen to it? Chime in below. I'd love to hear your experiences.
Hopefully you enjoyed this article. If you did, please use the links at the top of the page to share the article to others. It might help them get through their own doubts and bad advice about pursuing your dreams.
Thanks.
Eddy
Recent Comments
153
Great discussion! I come from a tight family and spend a lot of time with them. Unfortunately most of family are of the "get a good job and live off your pension" mindset. In fact, they have told me NOT to be a dreamer. So they don't even know what I'm doing.
I love them to death but when it comes to creating the path to my definition of success, I don't ask advise from those who say it can't be done. I ask the one's who are doing it!
Steve, I come from the same family. I don't know if it's a caribbean thing or what. lol
But I was raised the same way so I can totally relate.
The only thing we can do is show and prove. =)
Thanks for chiming in!
lol Eddy. I think it's pretty much a global thing. In the U.S. something like 90% of people have little to no savings. I need to seek out the 10% if I want reliable advice.
I live in the states and can totally attest to that stat. I'm trying to be part of the 1% that controls 96% of the income and not necessarily to hoard it for myself. But it's so I can enlighten the rest of the population that they can do it too on their own terms.
Birds of a feather flock together, Jonathon Livingston Seagull, I love that book. I haven't had really any "advice" on this venture just yet. My mom is very supportive and loves what I have been able to show her that I have created. She believes in me and tells me that I can do it and lifts me higher. (I love my mom, we are very close) However I did have someone try to think differently on real estate, here's the story.
A co-worker of mine invests in the stock market. I don't know how much he makes, but he doesn't really invest the way I would. I like the stock market and do want to invest it in, but at the beginning of my education I was learning about stock, but then I found real estate and diving into that. I then changed and focused on real estate for now. I told him I was going into real estate instead of stocks and he started telling me how there is no money in real estate to start with, how you had to have bunches of money to invest in it, how you wouldn't be able to make much after all the bills are paid and you have all the headaches.
Now I just listened, (he did have valid points) but as some of you might now know. I believe the statement, "If they can, so can I." And real estate investing has made more millionaires then any other type of investing. (I didn't tell him that, I just listened) And most of the millionaires on Forbes either hold their wealth in real estate or made their wealth with real estate. That's why I want to get into real estate lol.
Talking about that I thought of something else. I was going to a 3 day stock market training and I had to postpone it to go help family down in Oregon. I helped my Grandfather and his wife, (Who wasn't my grandmother) and we were talking about the stock market and investing and his wife, (who was trying to be helpful) started telling me how the stock market is to risky, and how lots of people have lost lots of money in the stock market and such. She didn't know what I knew at that point about all the strategies, lose prevention techniques, etc. So exactly what you are talking about.
SkyHorse, thanks for chiming in! It's great to have someone like your mom supporting and believing in you. My wife is sort of that support system for me. The two times I was down and ready to give up, she reminded me that wasn't an option and I had to get back on the horse. So I can appreciate your mom and your relationship with her.
I like what you did with the advice given to you. But more importantly Iike how you think.
"If they can, so can I." That's always been my philosophy. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you!!! That thinking I would say really came from my dad. He was an iron worker his whole life and he knows how to do a lot. He has the mindset of, "Why pay someone to do that? They just know more then I do on this subject, so if I learn what they know, I don't have to go to someone else to do that." Now yes, that is a very self-employed type of thinking. But he knows how to do LOTS LOTS LOTS. Tons of stuff that I don't even know he knows.
And I'll give you an example. My farrier, not the smartest guy on the planet. (Farriers really aren't, just talk to one. Oh, I know that was mean but I just had to say it, lol) What did he know that I didn't? How to trim a hoof, that's it. That is why he was here trimming and I wasn't. In March I bought a hoof trimming DVD series and trim my own now. The hooves look great now, and I don't need a farrier. (I wont be going into that profession though)
It's the same with this. What does so and so know that I don't? What are they doing to get those results because those are the results that I want? Start doing that and you will be successful.
It is true that some friends and family members care about your well being and telling you not to get scammed out there, especially if it has to do with "online". However, we can also argue the fact that the same friends and family members don't want you to succeed and are jealous of the fact that you work from home and they have to do the 9-5 and hence why they want you to stray away from doing what you are doing. They want to put this "doubt" in your mind. You can do two things, ignore them and keep doing what you are doing or convince them that they too can be working from home and join WA. Hey you never know, you might even profit from their "doubts" down the road!
Hello there fellow Eddie (lol).
I agree there are some haters out there as well. We all have them within our family, co-workers and friends. So you're right, it's not all based on love! Either way, the message of ignoring folks who aren't doing what you want to do makes sense in reason.
And you're right you can convert the haters to your biggest fans or dollars as you suggested. lol Great comment! Thanks for chiming in!
Eddy
Outside this community I don't know if some of us wouldn't make it. It is because of you and great blogs like this that so many of us push our way through. There are the people that are up front urges us forward. I can vision a great many people. Like the wagon coming west and all the different personalities that God instilled playing the role that helped them make their goal.
Thank you Eddy
God bless
Kymee
Hey Kymee, Thanks for the kind words. I have to agree with you! Being with like minded people really does help you push through the noise and self doubt we all experience.
Thanks for chiming in!
Spot on. I have always had a similar opinion, that there is no point in asking the opinion of somebody who hasn't really got a clue what you are trying to do.
I have been self-employed in various guises for over 20 years and like most people in similar situations it has been a roller coaster ride, yet I have done better than many friends whose general opinion could be summarized as "You don't know what you're doing".
"I also recognized that the advice I was getting were from people that never moved outside the blueprint set for them by society" - that is exactly right. Those people may not think I will make it, but the only certainty is that they will definitely never get beyond their poorly paid 9-to-5, whereas I will always have a chance.
Amen CoolCity! " but the only certainty is that they will definitely never get beyond their poorly paid 9-to-5, whereas I will always have a chance." That is a quote that everyone should print up and hold with them. Very powerful and true. Although some people get paid very well for their 9-5 but they're still at the whim and value of what someone else dictates.
Whereas this path allows us to eventually earn what we feel we deserve and have the freedom we want. I don't care what anyone says, no 9-5 offers you that. Thanks for chiming in! Great comment!
Great words. I know that nobody believes in me. Because of that I'm so determined to succeed in online marketing. I love that and I want to earn enough to quit my regular job and do only this.
Thanks Lumose! Don't worry, there are a lot of successful people and millionaires that no one else believed in as well. So you're in great company! Eventually you will be able to achieve this goal. You're already on the right path since you're here surrounded by other like minded people! Thanks for chiming in!
Hi Eddy, again I enjoyed your blog.
One best friend is really excited for me and asks me how I'm doing. My other best friend never asks, but she'll talk to me about it if I bring it up. My mum is mixed. She knows I break out of the mold every now and then. So she's surprised by me from time time over different things I get up to. My best neighbour encourages me to do what I love. I've mentioned it to people at say, my son's school, and they are like "oh". It is probably the first time they've known anyone to actually be doing this type of work. They don't know what to say to me.
I never asked anybody about this, I just did it. Most people that do know me, already know that I love computers. That's me though, I don't say bbaaahh (as in follow the flock) so to most people I'm not the norm, and I/we here at WA are not. They're still doing what I used to do - working in management, or working with a government department, etc.
Isn't it great to dare to be different and give it a go? I love it :)
Well said Annie! You sound very much like me so I can totally relate. It's very liberating not to care what others think about us when it comes to this venture and just in life. Like you said most of the people around are still doing what they used to do and getting the same results.
We're venturing out to get new and better results. We're just blessed to be in a community like WA. But judging by what you've said above, I suspect you would have still been trucking along because of your great mindset.
Thanks for sharing! Always good to hear from ya!
Actually very true, Eddy. Friends and family members worry for us because they care for us. They see all these scam schemes out there, they read about the failures and they don't want us to sink into it too.
Another problem is that if 95% online marketers fail and we start it then most probably we will also be in that 95% who fail. It is difficult to convince them that we will do better than all these 95% out there. And if we happen to fail then they too have to pay the price.
The quote is very good. It is always to listen the other party with respect. I read another quote lately: It is this: "Don’t get sidetracked by people who are not on track"
All great points Egon! Thanks for chiming in and the great quote! I'll be using that in the future!
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Oh, how we love our family and friends. No doubt about it. But I don't get myself stuck to everything they say. For the last five years, I have been busy researching about online business because this is what I want to do so that I can enjoy my golden years. And it is the exact opposite of what my family thinks. They keep telling me that there's nothing I can get out of it. Just last week, my husband told me stop soaking myself in the internet because I am just wasting my time. He knows I love creating things with technology.
Should I listen to them? Heck, NO! Just like what G.K. Chesterton said, I am doing exactly the opposite of what I am advised to do especially now that I found WA. Nobody knows what I am doing for now. I work in the wee hours of the night or when nobody is home. Sometimes, I just say I am working on my assignment. And I am enjoying what I am doing.
Thanks for pointing this out in your blog, Solomon. I know that there are some who are still skeptical about what they are here for. But here's a reminder that we have flocked together to become successful in what we are doing. This is the place to be.
Well, when I start to rake my $$$ I will just show them my bank account! No need to say more.
Way to go WAers! More blessings to y'all!
Amen Betcha! I admire your strength because it's one thing when friends and family members you don't see all the time don't support your endeavor. But when it's your spouse, you really have to be strong to push past their opinions since we tend to value them in higher regards.
Trust me when I say it's a very sweet feeling when people are seeing how well you're doing. You don't even need to show them the bank account. They'll notice the change when you're at home smiling or traveling the world or paying off one of their bills or when someone no longer needs to work. I look forward to that moment for you!
Keep pushing along. Thank goodness we all have each other here at WA!
Thanks for chiming in!!
I can't wait for that day to come. I just have to be strong to be able to make it to the top, you know. And I will keep pushing no matter what! As a matter of fact I am so relaxed even without a job right now because I know someday, what I am doing here will pay off. Oh, yeah, a loud AMEN here!
We gotta get going!
Betcha, Don't worry that day will be here sooner than you know and I'm looking forward to hearing about here on WA!
Oh, yes, I'm gonna shout it out loud here because everybody needs to know that this really works. I'm not a bit worried but so excited. That's I'm working hard on this great project!
I bet your article here will be one of the top 10 trending discussions next week. This is a great one!
I agree! It's always great hearing folks success story and it doesn't even matter how little or big it is. It's just inspiring for everyone. Keep doing your thing.
Apparently this article was in the top 10 for today. =)
Wooooo....congratulations! More to come, I'm sure of that! You've got hands for writing.
LOL, Thanks I try my best.