Be Careful Who Gives You Advice

"Be careful who gives you advices, coz fools do grow old too."

We tend to trust advice based on two things: how confident the person sounds, and how old they are.

Both are dangerous shortcuts. Confidence isn't the same as being right. And age isn't the same as

wisdom.

Fools grow old too. Someone can spend forty years making the same mistakes and simply get better at

explaining them. Time alone doesn't teach anyone anything — reflection does. A person who's never

questioned their own choices, never adjusted course, never admitted they were wrong, doesn't become

wiser just because more birthdays passed. They become a more practiced version of whoever they

already were.

That doesn't mean ignore older people, or reject advice on principle. It means you have to actually

evaluate the advice, not just the packaging it comes in.

A few questions worth asking before you take someone's advice to heart:

Have they actually done the thing they're advising me on? Advice about starting a business from

someone who's never started one is a guess dressed up as wisdom.

Where did their advice get them? Look at the outcome of their own life in the area they're

advising on, not just their confidence delivering it.

Are they projecting their fear, or sharing real experience? A lot of "advice" is really just someone

else's caution talking, not insight.

Does it actually apply to my situation? Good advice for one person's circumstances can be exactly

wrong for yours.

None of this means becoming cynical or shutting people out. It means holding advice to the same

standard you'd hold any other claim — does it actually check out?

Take the advice. Just check the source first — age and confidence are not the same thing as being right.

Who's given you the best advice of your life — and how did you know it was good?