Too many Cooks spoils the Broth

January 24th, 2022.

When you get advice from more than a source, you might get confused. It’s like having too many cooks in the kitchen, people say.

There is this popular expression that goes: "Too many cooks spoil the broth." What does it mean?

It means too many people give you advice and you end up confused. It means when there are too many cooks in the kitchen, the broth becomes the victim and is either ruined or becomes spoiled.

But what if this expression was reversed?

What if there were only one cook and everyone else was a customer?

When you buy whatever the cook makes, it doesn't matter what the other people think. One customer can make or break a business. It can be hard to make a living on just one sale every now and then, but it's also hard to make a good soup based on one recipe shared by many cooks.

Sometimes there are more chefs than customers, but sometimes there are more customers than chefs too.

You need advice like a hole in the head because it's everywhere. On the internet, you can find wisdom from every corner.

Advice from social media influencers, motivational quotes from various accounts here on readcash, google and the likes.

Everything from job interviews to self-love - and that's just scratching the surface. It's all good, except when you start to listen to so many different sources that you get confused and don't know exactly what to do with the information. People have different experiences, personalities and lifestyles, so it could be that your actions are different from mine and every single suggestion has good intentions.

When you have a problem and you go to different sources for advice, you end up confused.

You go to one person and he tells you this, then you go to another person and she tells you something else. But it is not because they are wrong, it is because they are different people with different life experiences.

But whether or not the advice is right or wrong, the result is that you don’t know what to do. You become confused.

Many people look to their family members for advice; they look to their friends and co-workers.   And it’s not just people either – you get advice from friends on social media and celebrities.

Everybody knows that it's not easy to get good ideas and motivation. Even worse, you might get in your way something different, but there is always one source that can give you what you are looking for and guide you the way to success.

The fact is, when you get advice from more than one source, you might get confused, mixed messages or even contradictory guidance.

We are in a new era. Not only do we get advice from friends, family, and strangers on social media, we also get it from brands. A brand that makes a product related to something you might need help with is more than likely going to give you advice. But remember, too many cooks spoil the broth. When you get advice from more than one source, you might get confused.

And that was the problem with how I was managing my business.

While in school, in the beginning, I had only one business on my mind: which is selling ladies wear. All my friends knew where to find me whenever they want to buy clothes. My business was my baby, it was my hobby. Nothing else mattered.

So there I was, selling female wears every day from room to room in the school.

Pretty soon, though, I realized that I needed to involve other voices in my decision. So I invited my friends to advise me on what else to sell, they suggested foodstuffs, I watched them suggest the sale of foodstuff to me and I started selling it not knowing it was an opportunity for them to but in credit from me. Until I couldn't realise the capital not to talk of the interest again.

We’ve all been there. A friend tells you to do something, so you do. Then someone else has an idea and you do that too. It’s great to hear different viewpoints, but at a certain point, the voices can start to be confusing.