You Wouldn’t Take Advice From the Next Steve Jobs

It’s okay, neither would I

It’s okay, neither would I

If Steve Jobs wrote a post on design during his hippy years, would anyone take it seriously? Doubtful. But if he did write that post, then today thousands of aspiring founders would probably have it plastered on their phone backgrounds. It would have gotten millions of hits by now. But what happened between the time Steve would have written it and now? Why would people pay attention now, but not back then? Well over those 50 years, Steve obtained a massive amount of credibility. The post didn’t change, but the way people perceive the validity of it did.

If that’s the case, are there hundreds of blog posts buried in the depths of the internet written by current novices, but future changemakers? If so, how can we evaluate if a post written by a young person is worth reading or has advice worth taking.

Just like a startup investor, we gotta pick the articles and theories that are right, but are unproven. As that person excels in their career, the risk of following the advice in their post is reduced, so more people invest into reading, understanding, and implementing the content. BUT, if you wait until a uncommon idea from a youngster becomes popular over a decade, you don’t have the edge of knowing that information first.

So what does this mean? When you read a good article from a young person, don’t mentally discredit it due to their inexperience. Ask yourself, if a 40 year old billionaire business owner wrote this post, would you be enthralled to invest time into it to understand and implement. If you say yes, then read the article. Enjoy it. Forget who wrote it and just immerse yourself into the content.

Who knows, you could be getting advice from the next Steve Jobs. Only time will tell 😉