All Advice Isn’t Good Advice (Including This Advice)
One of the best characteristics of the entrepreneurship community is people’s willingness to give advice. Experienced entrepreneurs willingly and eagerly spend dozens of hours each year mentoring young entrepreneurs. When asked why, most will give the same answer: they’re “paying it forward” in appreciation for the hours of advice and mentoring given to them early in their careers.
Unfortunately, mentorship is a double-edged sword because advice — even experienced and well-meaning advice — isn’t necessarily good advice. Let me share an example…
I met a young entrepreneur for coffee, and he pitched me an IoT concept he and a couple friends were working on. It was a vague idea. The team was hardly beyond the “me and my buddies want to be entrepreneurs so let’s figure out something to work on together” stage.
After explaining his idea, he said: “Someone else we were talking to suggested we partner with Cisco, IBM, Lenovo, or one of the other big tech firms in the area. Do you know anyone at those companies you could make an intro to?”
“Seriously?” I asked, with the same facial expression I make when sniffing my infant daughter’s pants to check for a dirty diaper. “That might be the worst advice I’ve ever heard. Who told you that?”
