My Advice Is Don’t Take My Advice

Advice is cheap, so the old adage goes. It means that not only is advice worth little, it also costs nothing to give. It is the simplest, quickest response to make when confronted with a problem. It addresses a situation without actually dealing with it. It is easier than understanding, than listening and analyzing. We know this intuitively: most of us give our-selves good advice every day but seldom act upon it. As the Professor told his student : “ Bud, I already know how to be twice as good a Professor as I am. My exploration of the paradoxes of leadership is deliberately meant not to provide advice but to deepen understanding of the issues that students face every day. In fact, I would be disappointed if the precepts presented in this page was perceived as advice. They don’t work that way (Richard Farson,1997).