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

Ruth Maldonado-Nyathi | Financial Services Advisor

It’s not necessarily advice, but I disagree with the idea that in order to be successful you need to be “team no sleep” or when people talk about “you can sleep when you die”. So often we see entrepreneurs and creatives work themselves to death without taking the time to listen to their bodies, take breaks when needed and enjoy the process just to end up burnout and exhausted. Yes, your level of discipline will make or break your career and business, but you need to rest. You need to recharge batteries and disconnect every so often. In my opinion, you perform better and your business does much better when you take time to rest and recharge. Read more>>

Eric Anderson | Managing Partner

“The Customer is Always Right.” Fundamentally, I don’t disagree with it, but overall it can be dangerous to listen to everything customers want you to do–from food and liquor selection to décor. Once we established our concept, it’s important for us to stick with and to what we are. If we listen to every person who says, “if you start carrying I’ll be here every day,” we would need another whole bar to stock the miscellaneous items. The same goes for things like happy hour (which we do not have), loyalty programs, and discounts for various groups or segments of the population. We have taken a hard stance on our concept–what we are and what we are trying to be. We believe that our food and beverages are worth the same price at any time of day or night, so we don’t have Happy Hour. Read more>>

Carmela Garone | Authentic Living Coach & Leadership Consultant

I disagree with the idea that the only way to achieve success is through hard work, stress and sacrificing everything. Of course, anything we really want takes work. However, the idea that success can only be gained through stress and severe discipline is misguided. I’ve been there myself and bought into that idea. If you live off stress and single minded attention to your goals, you will most likely achieve success. But at what price? So many of my clients come to me burned out and dissatisfied. Perhaps they have achieved the success they set out to achieve, and yet something is missing. They ask, is this all there is? I work with clients to determine what really matters to them. And letting go of the myriad tasks we think we have to control. Instead we build habits of success that are based on key drivers of success and not doing everything. We determine our true values and base our activities on these. Read more>>