“the most expensive advice is often free”
Someone once asked Warren Buffet about his advisors, and who he turns to when he needs to make big decisions. His reply – “I usually just look in the mirror.”
There’s a lot to recommend in being independent. When you make your own decisions, you get two things – if it turns out well, you can wholeheartedly congratulate yourself. If everything goes pear shaped, you are well and truly accountable.
And that’s a very valuable thing. In this era of life coaches, mentors, peer groups, outsourcing, crowdsourcing, p2p, b2b et al, it’s easy and fashionable to spread the responsibility around. And don’t get me wrong, having great mentors and a group of likeminded people around you is a wonderful thing.
However, I don’t think there’s been enough said about keeping your own council and holding to your own decisions. (Why? For one thing, coaching and consulting is good business.)
There’s some very interesting things that happen when you make up your own mind. For one thing, you get a lot sharper. Fast. For another, you get to do things your own way. (For better or for worse.) You’re not copying someone else’s style. If you’re smart, you’ll get to know yourself very well, and figure out what your strengths are. And probably find some strengths you never knew you had.
And you’ll also learn that a lot of decisions don’t even matter that much. That’s the great thing about making decisions based on your own judgement. You no longer can procrastinate by asking other people what they think.
You get the confidence to make your own mistakes, recover from them, and trust that you’ll figure out how to make things work. So, next time you have a decision you’re hesitating over, look in the mirror and ask – ‘what would I do?’
