I was recently watching a music reality show on TV. One of the judges of the show said – “ Advice givers are many, advice takers are few”. This is true. Our parents, teachers and elders have given us valuable advice right through our lives but most of us have hardly heeded to those in our lives.

This is the reality of life. We may have many people around us who are old and wise or young and wild, who give us valuable tips in life but we ignore them. However, when a young person is willing to take your advice and work on it, it could change their life.

In this very episode, a famous music director shared his life story and said that when he went for an audition of a music reality show, one of the guest judges had advised him to improve his pronunciation and diction in a particular language.

This young aspirant did exactly that and today he has grown into a successful music director and earned a command over that language, where he is in a position to guide others and improve their diction and pronunciation.

In life, we may get advice, left, right and centre from people all around us. It is upto us to take the advice and work on it. If we think, that advice would be helpful to us, we can convert a weakness into a strength by working on that advice.

Most of the times, we listen to advice and forget about it. It is like the feedback we get from people all around us. It could be our family, friends or even colleagues at our work place.

If we take the feedback seriously and the advice to its logical end, we may benefit more than we may lose. It is like a coach’s advise to a sportsperson. If the sports person takes the advice early in their life and act on it, it is possible that they become champions. On the other hand, with all the talent in hand, if we neglect advice, we cannot blame anyone else other than oneself.

Life is no different in reality. It is important to remember that advice may not necessarily come from elders or more experienced people in our lives. It could be the younger members in our team or our own kids. It all depends on our maturity to accept advice from our hearts and act on them. If we do, we improve and if we don’t, nobody else gains from it.

In life and work, we may not get advice all the time. If we ignore valuable advice, even our well wishers may stop giving advise it to us. Like the famous quote in the Mahabharata called “Vidhurshastra” – “ you never give advise to an adult, unless asked for “. This might become a reality for us if we do not take the advise given to us as kids or youth as people may refrain to give advise to us as adults.

None of us are perfect. So, we need to get advice every day of our lives from people, who are better than us. If we are willing to listen and learn, we gain and if we do not, we lose.

Let us evolve as “advise takers” from today.

S Ramesh Shankar

14th Dec 2024