Taking Of Advice

( Originally Published 1913 )

WHILE much of free advice :is worth just what is paid for it,— nothing,— the ad-vice of competent persons should not be despised.

The man who depends upon himself, and who is unwilling to take counsel with others, never gets anywhere, and does not deserve to.

Advice, however, like all other good things, should not be taken without the use of discretion, for much of it is unintentionally biased.

The perfectly balanced person does not exist. All of us, even those who make strenuous effort to render fair judgment, are unconsciously influenced, and our opinion, although conscientiously expressed, may, because of environment and conditions, be altogether one-sided, and frequently may be unsafe.

Therefore, I say, do not accept unqualifiedly the advice of any one person, no matter how ex-pert or competent he may be. Unless others, equally proficient, agree with him, it is usually unsafe to follow his advice indiscriminately.

The successful journalist, and particularly one who has not passed through all of the hardships of his calling, naturally sees journalism through a rose-colored glass, and is likely to be altogether too optimistic.

On the other hand, one who has met with constant disaster, due to his own fault or to circumstances, is likely to be pessimistic and to condemn emphatically this vocation as a whole.

Notwithstanding this diversity of opinion, and the fact that advice is not infallible, no one should enter journalism, or any other calling, without conversing with those who have both succeeded and failed in it.

The would-be newspaper man should obtain a general prospect of the situation by coming in contact with both classes of journalists,— those who are successes and those who are failures.

From the mass of advice he may obtain, if he be intelligent, a fairly correct insight into what will be likely to occur to him if he enters this calling.