When you go to someone for advice, be that a mentor, coach, lawyer or anyone at all, always consider the most important question before you agree to enlist them as your adviser.
Why are they in their profession? You must be much more concerned with WHY they are doing this, more than what they can do.
The vast majority of the time, the truth is that they’re doing it for the money. It’s their job, their business, the way they earn a living to achieve their goals.
The problem is that when somebody is giving you advice to supposedly help you in some way, for you to get you out of a problem perhaps, and at the same time they are doing it for the reason of making money for themselves, there is always a conflict of interest.
It may be subconscious, but the fact is that their deepest motivation is having a client, and keeping that client, which equates to long term income.
With this as their core drive, they can never subconsciously give you the best advice in the clearest and quickest manner, because then they would lose the client in one session and their income stream ends short.
You should always ask this question to anyone, even to your doctor. Ask them; ‘Why are you a doctor? Is it a good job, a good business, or is it because you sincerely have always wanted to end peoples suffering.’
If it’s a business coach or mentor, is it because they couldn’t get any other job and this was an easy way they thought they could make a lot of money. If they are advising you on making money, how much do they have?
If it’s a lawyer, do they really want to help you out of your trouble or are they just setting you up for trouble later down the line so they get more work to fix that problem, or perhaps dragging out the work so they can charge higher fees for more hours spent.
In business, when someone say; “Trust me, I am an honest person.” they are really saying; “I have a sucker here who I can milk.”
This most important question that you must ask will determine the quality of the advice and sincerity behind the person you turn to for help.
You may never get an honest answer, in fact you should always assume they are lying, but you can look in their eyes when they answer, and at least get a feel for how bad they really are. Then you will know how far to trust them.
As Ethic #1 on ethicalism.org says; ‘Take Full Responsibility For Everything In Your Life”
The reason this principle is so important is to stop you from feeling foolish, as well as not be cheated. When you trust someone, and they cheat you, you feel like a fool. That kills your self-esteem.
But if you approach every situation with objective reality, the outcome will never hurt you because you went in with your eyes open. You don’t get surprised when you get wet walking in the rain.
Be objective in your dealings with people whenever money is involved and you will always stay strong.
Join the discussion