I think advice can be useful from those who have tried something but failed (though plausibly many of those who eventually succeeded will have initially failed).
If we only seek advice from those who have quite easily succeeded, we risk hearing a biased view of the world that may not be the best advice for us. We may have more in common with those who failed, and may be better off hearing from these people in order to avoid their mistakes.
Presumably, we would like to hear from a broad range of people who have been successful (possibly at different things).
In order to hear all of these different views, it would be useful for someone to research, collate, and summarise them. But to do this well, what actually matters are research and communications skills—not necessarily the ability to do the things that the successful people have done.
For example, you don’t have to be a successful entrepreneur in order to interview 50 entrepreneurs and write about what they have in common. In this case, we should take into account the writer’s previous success at being a researcher and writer, not their entrepreneurial success.
I sort of agree, but a couple of points:
I think advice can be useful from those who have tried something but failed (though plausibly many of those who eventually succeeded will have initially failed).
If we only seek advice from those who have quite easily succeeded, we risk hearing a biased view of the world that may not be the best advice for us. We may have more in common with those who failed, and may be better off hearing from these people in order to avoid their mistakes.
Presumably, we would like to hear from a broad range of people who have been successful (possibly at different things).
In order to hear all of these different views, it would be useful for someone to research, collate, and summarise them. But to do this well, what actually matters are research and communications skills—not necessarily the ability to do the things that the successful people have done.
For example, you don’t have to be a successful entrepreneur in order to interview 50 entrepreneurs and write about what they have in common. In this case, we should take into account the writer’s previous success at being a researcher and writer, not their entrepreneurial success.