Their advice truly matters only if there is nothing in it for them
Imagine a friend of yours moved to a new city or country and, after a while, started to bombard you with everything that the new place had to offer. Surprisingly, everything he shares is amazing and positive, in a clear attempt to convince you to relocate there as well.
Although that place might be interesting and great, your friend is mostly inviting you to join him, for he is likely to be lonely and would love to enjoy your company there.
Of course, if we’re talking here about a good, honest friend, he’s not cheating you by inviting you to a horrible place to make the same mistake as his, but his motivation is primarily about himself and not you.
Moving out there might actually be an excellent idea for him, taking into account his personal situation and priorities in life, but it might just not be necessarily the same for you.
Even though he is a good friend, you shouldn’t blindly take his advice because it’s clear it’s not entirely about you; he has something in it.
Another example would be the friend who gets married and then preaches to his single friends about the benefits of marriage.
Don’t get me wrong here; marriage itself is a great idea, and marrying the right partner is probably one of the best and most rewarding decisions one can make—just as marrying the wrong partner may be one of the most disastrous.
However, your friend here is adjusting to a new life with less freedom and more responsibilities, and he would feel much better about it if his close friends were also in the same situation.
If, on the one hand, this friend is successful in several areas of life (making money, skills, fitness, etc.) but he seldom urges his buddies to follow his path as they also have the ability to strive, and on the other hand, he insists they marry after he did, then it’s self-evident his advice is clearly about himself and not them; otherwise it would have applied to all areas, not only marriage.
If they sell you a course on how to make money quickly and easily, don’t buy it
If money could be made easily and quickly, why would a random guy who doesn’t know you and doesn’t give a damn about you bother himself to make a course, shoot videos, do the editing, do the marketing, buy ads, and take all these risks, just to share the secret with you and teach you how to make a lot of money to become like him?
It’s self-evident they’re making money on the course, taking advantage of the fools who still believe that money can be made easily and quickly.
If such a “get rich quick” scheme truly existed and that guy had a grip on it, he’d already be enjoying life on his Yacht in Monaco or Dubai. The last thing he’d care about is disclosing his valuable secret to some random dude, let it be in exchange for some bucks he no longer needed.
Never lend money to someone who isn’t close enough to you
Think about it: they approached you for a loan, skipping all of their family, relatives, close friends, and coworkers. Does it make any sense? Of course not! It simply indicates nobody in their social circle is willing to lend them money knowing by experience they won’t repay it.
They therefore prey on a naive victim who doesn’t know them well enough. It’s self-evident.
