Successful Advice Seems Counterintuitive Sometimes

by Ryan Biddulph

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Successful advice makes sense sometimes.

Other times, successful advice seems counterintuitive.

Bloggers email me regularly asking to place guest posts, sponsored posts or links on my blog. None of these people build a relationship with me prior to cold pitching me.

I recall advising one blogger to build a bond with me and maybe I can mention their blog some day on my blog. He curtly told me he was up against a tight deadline and had no interest in building a friendship; he needed his free link on my blog, yesterday.

Obviously, my relationship-building advice seemed odd or even ridiculous to him because he vibed from a dominant energy of failure. Doing the successful thing – spending time to build a friendship based on service before asking for anything from a blogger – seemed to make no sense because he had not been exposed to successful blogging advice.

Strange Advice

If you never spoke to a highly successful entrepreneur, advice offered by established pros sounds odd, bizarre or flat out silly to your inexperienced ears. Most employees who never worked a business demand to be paid for every business task completed. Entrepreneurs who advise working for free – for a sustained period of time – usually seem a bit loony to employees turned entrepreneurs.

Before you deem advice strange, consider the source of the advice. Successful entrepreneurs may confuse you because you learned how to make money from employees who worked for other people.

My parents taught me to get a job to pay the bills. Although my folks advised me to follow my dreams too, working any job to ensure I paid all bills sufficiently seemed my first course of action. Working for free sounded ridiculous to me.

Naturally, I struggled horribly early during my blogging career because I tried to squeeze profits through all I did versus building friendships, sharing value and trusting in the blogging process as I worked for free.

Analyze Your Beliefs

Most entrepreneurs cling to poverty conscious, failure-inducing, limiting beliefs. Carefully analyze your thought patterns to change your thinking.

Odd-sounding talismans of wisdom like working for free to position yourself to make money easily may seem weird based on your current, limited belief system but pros know what they are talking about.

Successful entrepreneurs know their stuff. Until you build a thriving business, your beliefs need adjusting and fine-tuning to walk the successful path.

Humble yourself. Analyze your business beliefs. Who served as your role models? Perhaps your parents did a fine job raising you but programmed terrible business or money beliefs into your mind. Honestly assess why sound business advice seems off and you probably can find a negative business or money influence in the form of a parent or authority figure.

Own It All

Blame no one for your current business belief system. Own your predominant thoughts and feelings to be free of these limiting ideas.

Surround yourself with established, successful entrepreneurs. Whatever advice seemed counter intuitive makes perfect sense to business owners who befriend and learn from highly successful entrepreneurs.