"If you want to make the wrong decision, ask everyone." That quote from Naval is funny until you realize how accurate it is, because most people are not trying to steer you wrong on purpose — they are just working with incomplete information, personal bias, and their own fears projected onto your situation.
We live in a culture that rewards seeking input. We call it being humble, being open-minded, doing our research. And sometimes it is. But there is a version of advice-seeking that is really just a delay tactic dressed up as due diligence. You already know what you want to do, and you are collecting opinions until you find one that either confirms it or gives you permission to avoid it.
Not everyone deserves a seat at the table when you are making decisions about your career. The people who get that seat should have skin in the game — meaning they have something real at stake in your success, not just in being seen as helpful or insightful. They should have walked a road similar to yours, not just read about it or watched someone else walk it.
Think about the last time someone gave you career advice that made you feel worse, more confused, or more anxious than before you asked. Chances are, that person was operating from their own limitations and calling it wisdom. They may have told you to play it safe because they never took a risk. They may have told you the market is tough because that is the story that kept them comfortable.
Being selective does not mean being closed. It means being intentional. There are people worth listening to — mentors who have built something real, peers who are further along the same road, coaches who have seen the pattern enough times to give you perspective without projection. Those people are worth finding and worth listening to carefully.
The others? Be polite, be grateful, and then make your own call. Your career is not a committee decision. At the end of every conversation, you are still the one who has to live with the outcome. That means you are also the one who gets to decide which voices actually matter.
Trust your instincts more than you trust the crowd. The crowd is rarely wrong because they are malicious. They are wrong because they are average. If you want an average outcome, average advice will do. If you want something different, you are going to need to be very careful about whose voice you let into the room when the real decisions are on the table.