Two Pieces Of Unconventional Advice I Recently Received

As an aspiring entrepreneur, I love to sit down and grab coffee with other entrepreneurs.
I usually have my questions prepared beforehand but during the chat, I always keep our conversation flexible and not constrained to my questions.
My typical questions are experience related questions: How did you get here?, What advice would you give your 20-year-old self?, and What would you do differently?
These are questions that normally “Google” can’t answer.
Recently, I had coffee with a middle aged entrepreneur that I met at a workshop. He was a guest speaker at the workshop and I asked him afterwards if he was down for coffee; we recently met up and he shared valuable insights.
At the end of our conversation, I asked him what would he have done differently now that he has learned from his failures and successes.
He gave me two pieces of advice that surprised me. I’ve talked to a bunch of other entrepreneurs and his answers differed from what I usually get.
1. Always listen to older people — way older people.
I get the value of listening to older people. Well, I’m only 20 years old so most people I talk to are older than me anyway. But in this case, he is talking about people even older than him…like 15–20 years older. He told me of how valuable the insights and advice he received listening from them.
As a millennial, I always have a hard time talking to older people — Generation X and before. My excuse is that we speak totally different languages.
From his advice, I learned that listening is different from just talking. Listening must come from a humble background of “Yes, I want to be corrected. Yes, I am taking your advice in.” It’s not just a conversation where it immediately goes in one ear and out the other.
Yes, older people might be boring, Yes, older people might not speak the same language. But their experience is still very valuable. And this is not an answer that you can just find on Google (ironic huh?)
2. Don’t wait for your friends.
He told me about his experience of how when he was younger, he waited for his friends to be successful. He wanted to be successful together with his friends. He wanted to start his own company with his friends when they had a certain amount of experience and knowledge under their belt.
His friends, though, never caught up with him.
He waited too long to rely on his friends instead of learning things on his own.
I find that younger people often end up in a situation like this. We like to wait for our friends — for different kinds of reasons.
There’s nothing wrong with it, but once you sacrifice your growth and use the “waiting game” as an excuse to not start something, then waiting for your friends could be problematic.
The advice I received from him was priceless. For aspiring entrepreneurs and dreamers, I highly recommend sitting down with people and just learn from their experience.
The best thing about being young is that many older entrepreneurs or successful people are willing to share their experience with the younger generation.
I can’t wait for more unconventional advice I will receive in the future. I hope you do too. If you haven’t started, a simple “Are you down for a quick cup of coffee” can lead to many good things.
Cheers.
