“If I were you, I’d…” this is a sentence many of us would hate to listen. To be corrected means we are wrong. Who likes to be wrong or rather likes other person to point at your mistake. None.

It is said, “to err is human; to forgive is divine’. Correspondingly, the ability to admit your mistake and take correction humbly is a huge virtue. Again how many of us possess such a quality?

Generally, advice is given by those who consider themselves as “error-free”. And such ‘supposed to be’ flaw less people advise those whom they assume as incorrect. Here lies the problem. You don’t consider yourself wrong and naturally you don’t want people to correct you or advise.

Advice, of course, needs to be given when it is asked for. We all have problems and when we do, many of us go to our friends and family for advice. It is a great honour to be asked for advice. It is also a big responsibility. Good advice can help people make sound choices, sometimes, find the correct path in life. So the person who gives advice should be the best person on earth. Who is ‘the best’ person? There is no tool to measure it.

A bad advice can have disastrous consequences. One of my friends said,

The best advice that one can give someone is simply to follow their heart. The so called advice by elders cannot always be right as they too have "more experience" of being wrong. It's good to refrain from giving advice and messing with people's life and their feelings!

Another problem with these advice suppliers is they don’t apply what they supply. If you advise one thing but do the opposite, your advice will be seen as spurious, insincere and deceitful.

Irrespective of whether you are perfect or not; knowledgeable or not; the most important point you should understand when people approach you for advice is that the person who is soliciting advice actually just wants you to listen and be a good companion who could understand, empathise, and be compassionate. Perhaps, he will have a better solution to his problems. What is lacking in him is proper thinking. Asking for advice is a form of thinking out loud.

So next time when someone approaches you for advice don't assume that he wants your advice. G. K. Chesterton has said:

“I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.”