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SELF-MASTERY
Don’t Take Advice From Successful People
"You get praised for being rare as a successful woman...but I bet you know a lot of other women with the potential for success" Jessica Wiliams
I am a big fan of a self-help blog or post. You could probably claim this is one. But if you followed every possible piece of advice you’d be journalling, cleansing your colon, taking ice baths, throwing out anything that doesn’t spark joy and talking to strangers (hopefully not at the same time) so much you wouldn’t have any time to actually get stuff done.
Take virtually any of the 'big' self-help or leadership books and they are based on studying top companies or leaders. But there are some good reasons we should treat them with healthy scepticism.
1. Markets
When Tom Peters profiled successful companies in the 80’s he was at pains to make the point that 1950’s management had made a grave mistake. They had mistaken the post war boom, when many companies experienced astounding success, to be down to how they did it. In other words it was a bubble, which for many, didn’t burst for decades. The accepted wisdom of the time as to how to run a company and treat people (much of which we now know to be false) was seen as being a successful strategy because the companies were successful.
