Sometimes, the most random thing can inspire a blog post. Today is one of those random days. It made me reflect upon the times in life when I have been given advice but thought I was more educated or experienced than the giver, so I snubbed their genuine attempt and forfeited an opportunity to improve myself or prevent future suffering.
How Often do we Trash the Advice of Others
This picture is not stock art. I took it with my phone because I saw it and it made me chuckle. I’ll admit that I did a bit of editing to make it clearer to read and view, but this is exactly the scene I observed. Knowing the location, it was clear to me that the label was not intentionally placed where it resided when I took the photo. It just ended up there by chance. I saw it and snapped the picture because it made me wonder…
How often do we trash the advice of others?
This simple note says “A Word of Advice” and it’s stuck atop of the waste basket, metaphorically representing a repository for all the words of advice that have been offered to us only to be disregarded.
It most reminds me of when I first started out in my career after college. Armed with a degree and a lot of practice, I wasn’t going to let anyone tell me how to write. I was offended and was quick to defend any edit that was suggested. I was smug about correcting when people would question if “affect” or “effect” was the proper word for the context. I got angry if people didn’t know the difference between “to” or “too” or “two.” And don’t get me started on “there” or “their” or “they’re.”
But guess what. I don’t know everything about anything
That realization helped me improve my writing skills and made me willing to break rules (did you catch that I started a sentence with the word “and” earlier? Is it killing you?) if it benefits the telling of the story or the intended purpose of what I write.
That nature later transcended to websites and online banking development and support, where I was deeply rooted for the first several years of my career. Them someone email suggesting some improvements to the security of our site.
Often, when people would reach out to blindly offer their suggestions, it usually meant they we’re going to follow with a sales pitch upon my response. So I responded politely and informed this person that we deployed a very secure environment and that there wasn’t a need to explore anything further.
My goal was to curb a sales pitch. But my response was without merit or even a true understanding of what I was stating. His response was quite astute and more or less dead on.
“Your words ring of the hubris of a younger man.”
Not only was he right, but he forced me to look up the word “hubris.” I’d like to say I fixed my hubris nature immediately, but I didn’t. It took a long time to sink in and I still fall short of my desired reactions to other people’s advice, whether solicited on otherwise.
But the bottom line is this: Proverbs 15:12 (NIV) reminds us that, “Mockers resent correction, so they avoid the wise.” Such mockers, who do so when they trash words of advice, are jesting of religion and godliness. Their tongues treat the Gospel with contempt and they never develop genuine wisdom of their own.
Parallel that with Amos 5:10, which says, “How you hate honest judges! How you despise people who tell the truth!”
So, the next time someone offers you advice, before you scoff or mock them, thank them. Thank them, for taking the time to offer their opinion. Let them know you value them and appreciate their helpfulness. Not only will it go a long way toward building them up, it might just help produce a little less hubris in your own life.