By Ken West, Ph.D.
ADVICE. How do you feel about this word? Have you ever given someone advice only to find that the person did not take it? Recently a friend of mine told me about traveling by car with three other people. The driver became lost in a rural area at night and twice asked the three passengers for advice. My friend and the two other passengers gave suggestions that were promptly ignored. The third request for advice was met with silence.
Why do individuals ignore advice? Is it due to stubbornness, pride, or lack of confidence in the person giving the advice? The latter sometimes happens when we are young adults, especially when the advice is from our parents. It is funny how our parents get smarter and wiser as we get older! We learn for ourselves how wisdom can come from experience.
It is one thing to ignore free advice, it is quite another when you have paid for it, perhaps hundreds of dollars per hour. Talk to anyone who is paid to give advice, such as financial planners, physicians, mental health counselors, or lawyers, and they will all tell you that people often do not take their advice, usually to the person’s detriment. Businesses, like individuals, are also known to ignore advice on occasion. Ignoring good advice can be costly, especially in business. Ignoring the advice of a consultant can result in wasting time, effort and human resources. Such costs can add up to millions of dollars.