A highly successful UK sports star was chatting ruefully to me about her new business venture at a recent charity event. The slow customer uptake, the financial turmoil and the drain on her mental health through the past 18 months. The conversation pivoted to where and with whom she was taking expert advice. She talked about the advice that she’d received from her financial and legal advisers, many she’d known from early in her sports career, and a few other well-meaning large corporate business executives and sponsors. When I asked how many had successfully achieved what she was seeking to do, and could readily translate and transfer their success to her situation, she was flummoxed.

As much as they wanted to help and were loyal friends, they weren’t qualified and the advice that she was getting wasn’t relevant.

Who is your best source of unfiltered feedback for the immediate challenges facing you and your life? How can you be sure it is both relevant and immediately useful?

My most successful clients are constantly adapting their sources, not beholden to the longevity of the relationship or their content knowledge but the depth and breadth of relevant perspective that they bring today about future risks they face and the decisions they must make.

If you have been unable to make the desired progress with a new initiative perhaps you are not asking the right questions of the right people, nor taking on board and applying the smartest advice? Don’t know where to turn for “help” identifying qualified expertise, ask someone who has successfully done what you want to accomplish.