#16 - The Advice Paradox
Nobody knows what they're doing, everybody knows something you don't, and the secret of our success
“Never miss an opportunity for a pee.”
That’s the earliest advice I can remember from my father.
For years I treated it as gospel. Right up until my first job, washing dishes, when the boss suggested my weak bladder was due to taking advantage of every opportunity to pee. Thanks Dad.
Advice is a funny thing. At times contradictory and at times life changing. It’s amazing what we can learn from others. Other people are wonderfully underrated.
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Nobody Knows What They’re Doing
Let’s start with the cynical view. Everybody is making it up as they go along. I certainly am, and since founding Unplugged I've discovered that everyone else is too.
Nowhere has this proved truer than in fundraising. Every investor has something different to say. First, a word on investors: The endless Zoom calls are draining but offer a rich delta of advice. As the saying goes:
“If you want advice ask for investment, and if you want investment ask for advice.”
Wise, wise words.
At first it was demoralising; every day hearing a long list of things we’ve missed. But we soon found— to our delight- that we’d often hear a piece of advice from one investor, and then, hours later, the opposite from another. Demoralising turns into deeply amusing.
“Think bigger!” - “You’re being unrealistic.”
“You can’t lock away peoples phones” - “Focus on locking away peoples phones”
“Don’t be a hospitality business” - “Be a hospitality business”
The list goes on. Nobody knows what they’re doing. Really.
Everyone Knows Something You Don’t
Here’s the flip side: advice can be life changing.
It’s during fundraising that we learn the most. Because everyone knows something we don’t. Within the torrent advice are nuggets of gold; the answers to all our questions. All we need to do is identify them.
Every breakthrough we’ve had as a business has come from the advice of others. Those advisors have come in many shapes and sizes- often from the unlikeliest places. It’s a useful reminder that everyone knows something you don’t. It sounds trivial at first but the implications are profound. We have something to learn from everyone we encounter: the local barista, the cold calling sales rep, and even the homeless person down on their luck.
This lesson gives life a new shine. Suddenly every conversation has the potential for wonder.
The Social Ape
There’s an evolutionary basis to all this. It’s the answer to why homo sapiens are flying in aeroplanes and living in cities. It’s the secret to our success, so says Joseph Henrich in his book of the same name.
Are we smarter than a chimpanzee? Perhaps not.
Henrich tells us about a landmark 2007 study pitting toddlers against chimpanzees and other apes in a series of intelligence tests. The chimps equalled or out performed the toddlers on all tests but one. When using tools for example, the chimpanzee prevailed. The one test won by the toddlers? Social learning. Our ability to learn from each other. The toddlers were off the charts.
That’s how all this is possible- how I can be writing this article today- we’re great at learning from each other. One human couldn’t create something as complex as today’s number systems, but over generations? Easy.
The lesson here is how much we have to learn from one another. Ben and I may chuckle about the conflicting advice we’re hearing but we’d be wise to take heed. There are many challenges ahead we shall no doubt meet along the way people who have the answers. That really helps me sleep at night. We don’t need the answers right now. They’ll find us when the time is right.
My Week in Books📚
My Experiments with Truth by M. K. Gandhi
My family have taken to calling me Gandhi in jest. I’ll be honest- I’m rather pleased. It certainly beats my school nickname-“Gobbo”.
A wonderfully revealing book. Gandhi was simply a fantastic person; selfless to the extreme.
It’s fascinating to see the similarities with Mandela’s story: a lawyer, who made his name fighting for equality in South Africa, and went on to be one of the 20th century’s loftiest icons. It’s an interesting lesson that the darkest times produce the brightest lights.
A Final Thought 💡
“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt