Who Do You Listen To?

There’s an interesting debate going on at one of the blogs I follow; some readers/commenters are questioning the creds of one of the contributors. Not in a particularly aggressive way but they’re simply saying “Hey, what exactly is it that qualifies you to be advising thousands of other people on this topic?”.

It’s a good question.

This relates back to another post I did a while ago and is something I still wonder about. It’s the balance between experience and knowledge – which is more important? Can one exist without the other?

It’s very easy these days to position oneself as an expert despite having had no personal experience of a subject; a mentor once told me that there are 3 levels of social proof:

1. You’ve done it yourself
2. You’ve helped others do it
3. You’ve helped someone in the worst possible position do it

It makes me wonder how people out there position themselves as “experts” when they’ve never actually done things themselves; perhaps they’ve read all there is to read on a subject; maybe they’ve spoken to people who’ve done it – but unless they’ve ever really done it themselves, how much do they really know?

So I’m curious…

• Would you rather take advice about maintaining a successful relationship from someone who’s done/doing it or from someone who’s single?
• Would you rather take advice about blogging effectively for business from someone who’s done it or from someone who doesn’t have a blog?
• Would you rather take advice about becoming a millionaire from someone who’s done it or from someone who’s still trying?
• Would you rather take advice about running and marketing your business online from someone who does it or from someone who just talks about it?
• Would you rather take advice about losing weight from a previously fat personal trainer who’s lost the weight or from a still fat personal trainer?

I’m happy that I have the *right* creds for advising people about the topics we do; are you?