Advice is an input
If there’s one thing I wish I’d learned at the youngest-possible age, it’s not to let other people tell you who you can be. Advice and wisdom aren’t roadmaps, they’re just datapoints. Inputs. And that applies to the workplace, too.
When I was a kid, I liked to sing, and adults often told me that meant I should be on Broadway. For a while, I wanted to live up to that prediction, to make people feel like they saw something in me and were right. And while aiming high can push you further than having no expectations at all, it’s rarely possible to simply follow someone else’s vision. In my case, I was much more interested in understanding myself and the world than pretending to be a character. And I physiologically lacked the energy for long rehearsals and endless tech days—how would I survive the lifestyle?
It’s easy to offer vision for someone else, but doing the work is a different story. I’ve seen this dynamic in companies too, someone on the outside says, “You can be X for Y!” If founders blindly chase that, hoping for a big exit, they may miss market signs, more feasible opportunities, or simply grow entitled to an outcome they’re not truly committed to building.
It’s the same with career feedback. Someone tells you what kind of role you’d be great for or suggests a format for your resume. Maybe you get feedback after an interview. It’s all just information. You don’t have to correct anyone, or defend yourself. You can just thank them, or say how interesting it is. You’re not responsible for their being right or wrong about you. You get to decide what’s useful, and what to leave behind.
Honestly, it’s no different from product management. When a customer makes a feature request, you don’t just build it exactly as stated. You dig deeper, look for patterns, and design something elegant—or even say no. But in our lives, we often take advice way more literally. We forget it’s the same thing: information.
Advice isn’t a plan. It’s not a truth. It’s something you get to use, shape, or ignore. Your job is to figure out what it means for you, and then decide whether to build it.