We asked folks we admire to share one piece of conventional advice that they disagree with.

Dr. Anthony Cruz | President, Miami Dade College Hialeah Campus

I disagree with the conventional advice that we all need a backup plan or a plan b when establishing our professional or business goals. I believe that a backup plan can interfere and actually hurt reaching our primary goal. Backup plans can give us a sense of false security that can reduce motivation and level of effort. This makes it even more important that our goals are well thought out and focused. Read more>>

Andrea Kartika Deierlein | Chief Energy Officer

The advice to hustle… especially when you’re starting your own business and when working on and in your business. Even before I started my own business, I realized that the greatest source of stress is when people work against themselves, instead of with themselves. This was my very own personal and painful experience… which I’d like to share with you, as it sets the background for how I work now: For many years, I was one of those walking zombies on Metro North going into New York City at 7 a.m., returning 12 or more hours later. I was exhausted, drained, and nasty. To get through the days of my job in German government relations I fueled myself with caffeine and sugar. To deal with the physical pain of all this tension and stress, I popped pain killers like candy. Read more>>

Adriana Byles | Web Developer & Podcaster

As I grow older and get further into my professional career I think the saying “If you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life,” can be very misleading. When you are starting out your life and career that framing can be helpful because it encourages you to go where your natural interests are leading you. It encourages you to follow a professional path that is interesting and fulfilling, not just monitarly motivated. Where I think that this saying can be misleading, is that it deludes people into thinking that all work will be easy All work is hard. It doesn’t matter if it’s in a field that you are drawn to or one where you have an exceptional natural ability. You don’t start off knowing how to do something and even with time and mastery, your work can continue to be diffucult. That should not make it less fulfilling. It means that at the end of your hard work you can look back on the grind and be proud of yourself for pushing through to the end and feel fulfilled by your accomplishments. Read more>>