Executives are often criticized for not being amenable to receiving advice. Indeed, everyone has his blindspots. A great executive is one who turns to someone who can challenge his assumptions and help him avoid falling prey to his blindspots.
The Talmud defines a true scholar as one who can learn from anyone. Mick Jagger is unafraid to look in unusual places for inspiration. He even studied Marilyn Monroe’s gestures for stage tips. He consciously mimicked her style – the elegant hand movements, the swiveling walk, pouty lips, the playful toss of the head. And if you are trapped in the window seat on plane sitting next to a babbling idiot, you should make the most of it and try to learn something from him. You don't have to turn to these kinds of people for advice about your business.
You should be more selective about who you turn to for crucial advice. Your friends are not always the best people to share your inner business confidences with. They may have feelings of schadenfreude - your friends don't want you to be too successful. If the advice is not well thought-out, it is often worthless. Many people blurt out suggestions without really knowing what they are talking about. In this vein, I have repeatedly realized that people laugh a few miiseconds before the punchline of a joke is delivered. You don't want to turn to someone like the guy at your book club who is extremely vocal and opinionated but never reads the books that are under discussion.
The best people to turn to for business advice are those that are highly intelligent in business matters, have traversed a terrain similar to the one that lies in front of you and who is somewhat remote from the situation. Also, be careful about seeking advice from someone you intend to do business with once your implement your idea. No matter how close you think you are to your business associates, approaching them with a tentative business idea will shake their confidence in you and may cost you their business.
Regardless of from whom you seek advice, you must be able to differentiate between substantive criticism and baseless attacks. The most successful executives are malleable enough to know when to acknowledge their blindspots and when to defend their positions.
Albert Einstein was intelligent enough to admit when he was wrong and to change his position. He did this throughout his career as a physicist and as an outspoken acolyte. (He once said that Adolph Hitler represented no threat to Germany or Europe. He told a group of 3,000 Zionists in New York that he believed that the Jewish people did not need their own homeland. He changed his stance on both of these issues.)
Fortunately, Alexander Graham Bell persisted to commercialize the telephone when Western Union's president, William Orton, asked, "What use could this company make of an electrical toy." Purveyors of electricity were not discouraged when Erasmus Wilson, a professor at Oxford University, commented, "When the Paris Exhibition closes, electric light will close with it and no more will be heard of it." Michael Dell, Steve Jobs, Ted Waitt (Gateway Computer), Rod Canion (co-founder of Compaq Computer), Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard were unmoved when Kenneth Olson, president and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation said, "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home."
