Sometimes the best advice is knowing when to ignore advice.
EXPERT OPINION BY JERRY COLONNA, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, REBOOT
Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour recently said most business advice is “trash,” arguing that he’d rather “make it up” as he goes. It sounds provocative, but there’s a useful truth behind the bluntness: much of the advice served up by business media isn’t timeless wisdom.
Sometimes, the best way to lead is to stop following the conventional playbook and figure it out for yourself.
But there’s a difference between trusting your instincts and refusing outright to learn from anyone. There comes a time in every leader’s career when seeking advice or listening to it is not only the smart thing to do but the only thing to do.
The case for instinct
Mansour’s core critique is that people both give and take advice too freely. That’s a hard statement to argue with, especially in the age of AI “advice.” I’ve seen leaders lean heavily on advice from others that’s often grounded in assumptions and suggestions, rarely in learned experience.
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It’s also easy to see why two founders who grew a company from the ground up might shun any outside advice — as was the case with Kalshi. The “go with your gut” formula worked and may continue to. Leaders who follow every piece of advice often end up with watered-down products and lose sight of where or why they started. But winging it has consequences, too.
The blind spots
One thing my clients often hear is the phrase, “you don’t know what you don’t know.” And it’s the truth. Kalshi is facing lawsuits, regulatory hurdles, and some insider trading allegations.
Could these things have been prevented or handled earlier with some outsider advice? Possibly. Would it have been worth seeking that advice early on? Definitely but I also understand why it didn’t happen.
Source: www.inc.com
