The vast majority of us avoid criticism at cost. This includes countries, companies, and individuals. However, getting Feedback is critical for advancing in the muddy waters of career, business ownership, investing, and many more Financial matters.
In order to learn, improve, or change course you need new information, and that information is known by experts and mentors. The only way for you to access that information is getting specific feedback from others with proven track records of success. I’m acquainted with someone who has a stunted professional career, very poor investing results, and makes bad financial decisions. It is no coincidence she seeks no feedback and tries the opposite approach – everything she does is top secret from those that could help her. However, whatever isn’t immediately obvious will eventually become so over time; which makes her appear all the more ridiculous. She wants everything kept secret so that she won’t be judged or criticized, perhaps because she doesn’t have the maturity to cope with them.
Contrarily, I try not to make any notable financial decision without chatting with a few of the brightest and most successful people that I know. Invariably, they will offer decision-making facets that I hadn’t considered, a news item I was unaware of, or where to get more expertise. As a result, even the tiniest home maintenance decisions I make are more thoughtful, financially robust, and cheaper over time. I don’t care if the feedback I receive is abrasive, demeaning, insulting, or humiliating – I just want the information to improve and the sooner the better. A year out of college, I wrote a draft financial cover letter for the Controller and he sent it back to me, nearly dripping with red-ink corrections. My colleagues were aghast and so happy that they didn’t attempt the letter. But I viewed it as a great gift – my re-draft was great, it taught me how to convey financial information – how else could I have been taught so quickly? A lending mentor of mine repeatedly used the phrase, “It takes steel to sharpen steel” when he was about to give me some brisk suggestions.
What do you think happens if you’re taking the wrong path with the wrong approach? You head straight into a ditch. Getting mentors and advisers for feedback is likely the most important thing you can do for your personal success. There are people in your position making twice as much as you do. What are they doing differently than you every day? The easiest way is to find several and take them out for a meal and ask them, one at a time. Find out exactly what the people a level above your success are doing differently so that you can incorporate these tasks into your routine.
A mentor is critical to an advancing career because you must know what to do along with landmines to avoid. Advice on both of these fronts dramatically reduces the trial-and-error approach that most people follow, and it dramatically increases the time it takes to move ahead. This also applies to business ownership, stock investing, real estate, retirement planning, and personal budgeting.
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