Listen, Just Not To Everyone

While at Yale University, Fred Smith wrote a paper for his economics class arguing that the only way freight could be profitable for the airlines was if the airline industry developed an entirely new system that focused on transporting packages, as opposed to people, using different route patterns than those currently in place. He argued that this system would need to be an all-freight airline that reached out to both small and large cities, have a central hub, utilize the efficiencies of small jets, and travel primarily at night when the airports were least congested. Smith’s professor disagreed with him, gave him a low grade on his paper, and told him that freight will be the primary source of revenue for passenger airlines.

Everyone Has an Opinion.

When developing ideas or when faced with a major decision, be it personal or professional, it is always a good idea to gather feedback from others. This practice Not only ensures that you are considering as many factors as possible when deciding, but feedback also helps you to develop your ideas properly. Feedback can also increase the odds of making the best decision possible.

Luckily, most people are willing to provide you with their opinion on just about anything you may pose to them. However, while many people will give you their opinion with the sincere intent of helping you with your decision-making process, there are some who will give their opinion with an entirely different motive in mind.

An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth a Pound of Cure

Most decisions we will make throughout our lifetime will be decisions we can make on our own and, for the most part, will have little if any immediate or major consequence. However, we are wise to realize that every decision compounds on previous decisions and as they cumulate, they have a short or long-term consequence. You probably don’t need someone’s opinion about whether you should have a burger and fries for lunch every day.

However, when faced with business, professional, or personal decisions like: closing a factory, reducing staff, contracting with a vendor, outsourcing work, consolidating resources, investing in capital, investing in a certain stock, changing careers, or where to send your children to school, it may be a worthwhile practice to seek the input of others. Just remember that while the opinions of many will be sincere and with your best interests in mind, the opinions of some can be driven by other motives.

Look Behind Door Number Two

Each of us has biases and motives that lead us to make the decisions we do. Because of those biases we have become good at rationalizing a decision and convincing ourselves that the decision is right, even though our gut tells us it may not be. Loss aversion, the status quo trap, and the overconfidence trap can lead us astray and interfere with what we believe is a good decision-making process. In those situations, it is our emotions that are doing the thinking and not our rational brain. Therefore, seeking out the advice of others on major decisions is so valuable.

Unfortunately, there are those out there who are also jealous of others and hate to see others succeed. Be it that they have their own personal issues with their lack of life satisfaction and success, or they are just wired with a scarcity mentality, they do not like to see others succeed. Believe it or not, some people like to keep others down because it makes them feel better about who they are as a person. Others simply like to see winners lose.

Therefore, you must be aware of this when you are being given an opinion by another. You must evaluate their advice and seek to understand the rationale, while also working to uncover any possible motives or biases. Unfortunately, you cannot trust everyone’s intentions, not even those in the news media who are paid to report in an allegedly unbiased manner.

Circle of Experts

To ensure that you make the best decision possible it is imperative that you develop a circle of trusted friends, family members, peers, direct reports, colleagues, and business partners. This circle must be diverse and based in complete trust and the sincere interest of seeing each other succeed. Such a circle will allow you to seek feedback and evaluate that feedback on its merits and without wondering about motives.

If the circle is properly diverse, not all the opinions will be the same. As a result, you’ll need to weigh each person’s opinion and make the decision you think is best based on the feedback you are given and the knowledge you already have. Not all decisions will be perfect, but they certainly will be better than if you made the decision without first seeking insight from those who have your best interests in mind.

Lift-Off

Fred Smith’s decision to accept his professor’s feedback and continue to pursue the opinions of others led him to create Federal Express, one of the most successful freight businesses in the world. Because he was able to develop a circle of influencers that gave him honest and sometimes difficult feedback about his business idea, he was able to make a series of decisions that resulted in success.

Like most of us, he struggled for a few years before his idea was developed enough to take off and fly. However, lift-off was made possible because of the team of influencers he put together to advise him. They helped him develop his idea and turn it into one of the greatest business ventures in decades.

Randy Stepp is a Principal with Renaissance Leadership Group. RLG is a full-service business and development company driven by a purpose to help business owners realize their dreams of independence and freedom.

Visit Renaissance Leadership Group at www.renaissanceleadershipgroup.com to learn more.