More Business Fail From Bad Business Advice Than Of Any Other Causes Combined!
I want to start this post by getting something off my chest. And that is that I am absolutely appalled with the business coaching industry, especially with franchising companies out there that inevitably cause more harm than good to their clients. You might already know some victims of such poor business practices or worse… be a victim yourself!
Having had a few clients who came to me to solve specific business issues that were obviously caused by bad advice received from so called business coaches, I went to investigate the industry.
After conducting research, it became apparent that practically ANYONE could become a business or life coach, all you really needed is to invest money in to a 2 week training program to receive a licence to use/sell out-of-box templates while receiving assistance in learning how to market them (if you don’t believe me, check it out for yourself…)
These overnight coaches claim to have a single magic pill that solves all of your business problems! In all honesty, this is beyond me!!! Such claims are equivalent of following the advice of a medical GP who prescribes Panadol tablets as an all-in-one cure to all of your health problems.
The reality is that most business owners are specialists in delivering specific services to their clients, but have little business acumen to grow their dreams to maturity of having an independent, self operating venture. And just like in the GP instance, they are forced to trust these who seem to exude authority on the subject while offering what seems to be a viable solution to the raised issues.
Another example is like going to a mechanic who claims that because of a noise in the car you need to have certain services performed while you have no choice but to trust him/her, because while you know how to drive a car you have no idea how to fix it. And because of lack of expert knowledge, at times you will end up being taken advantage of in the best case scenario and in the worst case get services from an incompetent, unqualified and inexperienced mechanic whose advice would inevitably ruin your car in a long run!
While there are certain checklists that you can follow to minimise the risk of getting bad advice and purchasing wrong services, the most basic step is just to use common sense! DO YOUR HOMEWORK!!! Have second, third, fourth opinion, have a cool off period, never purchases under emotional pressure or stress. Because while a good advice is very important in saving time and money, but nothing is worse than receiving wrong advice from incompetent source and having to gamble with the future of your business. Ignore this basic commonsense that ironically is not that common and run the risk of LOOSING EVERYTHING!
The Secret is simple: Beware of charlatans, offering magic bullet while placing no accountability on the deliverer! If you want to be successful in life and business, then gain necessary knowledge yourself, rather than relying on others to save you because most of them are ski instructors who have never been up the mountain!
Nice writing. You are on my RSS reader now so I can read more from you down the road.
Allen Taylor
Thank you Allen, look forward to feeding your RSS reader with hopefully entertaining and useful content.
nice work Anatoly
very good advice!
as the saying goes… the true value of intelligence is in the knowledge that we know nothing at all
Thanks Luisa.
Yes I agree, mainly because even after all this time I am still on a weekly basis get surprised of how little I knew a week before. I think that one lifetime of learning and most importantly practical testing of theories is not enough to state that you “know”, I prefer saying that “I have an idea”.
While all it takes is three months of intensive and focused study to become more aware on specific topic than the rest of the general population, it is always an ongoing learning curve. That is precisely why I am surprised of so called experts who claim to fame is offering a silver bullet after being instructed just for couple of weeks.
In fact, I am often shocked by how little university graduates actually retain, something that I found when we used to hire graduates and undergrads at one of my accounting businesses. Each and every time we had to practically teach them over again and that’s after 3 to 5 years of intensive study.
So I am very cautious when someone claims to have an answer, but I do listen because often it challenges my ideas and opens the doors to new opportunities to the lifetime dedicated to increasing awareness.
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