Why I Stopped Following Business Advice That Didn’t Feel Right

18 Jul

A quiet rebellion against “6-figure blueprints” and finding my own compass.

I used to be obsessed with business advice. At 16 I was reading business books at bedtime, pages written during the dotcom bubble, laced with hustle, scale, and "think big" energy. I had big dreams at that age. I wanted 26 businesses, one for each letter of the alphabet (so far, I’ve managed to get to 6).

As the internet exploded, so did the voices: gurus, podcasts, blogs, and blueprints that promised the secret to success, just one funnel, one launch, one hack away.

And I believed them.

I followed the steps. I studied the formulas. I tried to reverse-engineer other people’s wins, thinking if I cracked the code, I’d finally reach the top of the mountain where all the gold was supposed to be.

But no matter how hard I pushed, I never quite got there. It always felt like I was rolling a boulder uphill, pushing, pushing, but never being able to get it over the summit.

For decades, I grafted, pushing harder and harder, until somewhere along the way, something shifted.

The Advice That Didn’t Fit

It started with a niggle, a little voice that whispered, this doesn’t quite feel like you.

I pushed the voice away and ignored it, because the experts were loud, and confident.

The experts said that success came from hustle harder. You had to post every day, no matter what. You had to chase followers like they were the only measure of worth. And of course, you had to squeeze every hour of the day for “productivity” like a cash machine.

I did those things, for a while, and I got results, but not the kind I wanted. Not only was it exhausting, but it also wasn’t the kind of results that felt like me.

Hidden in all this advice was the biggest caveat that we all need to remember: business advice is not one-size-fits-all.

What works for one person might feel like a square peg in a round hole for someone else. Not all advice is the right advice, and trying to force it regardless? That only leads to burnout, confusion, and like me, failure to get that boulder over the hump of the hill, however much you try.

Finding My Own Compass

Eventually, I stopped listening to the advice. Not out of failure, but out of sheer exhaustion.

I remember looking at my to-do list that I didn’t want to do, at the offers I didn’t want to sell, and the “marketing musts”, that volume of content I had to create for my marketing “funnel”. It made me feel sick and icky, like a used car salesperson out to get their quota.

These were all things I could do, but not things I wanted to do.
That’s when the lightbulb appeared.
This wasn’t why I started my business in the first place.

I didn’t leave behind the security of a paycheck, take risks, and pour my heart into entrepreneurship just to follow someone else’s plan to the letter.

I wanted freedom, creativity, connection, but not a new kind of cage dressed up as a strategy.

So, I turned down the volume on everyone elses voices. I turned up my own voice, nd started listening inward instead of outward. I stripped it all back and asked myself one bold, but simple question:

What would it look like to run a business that actually feels like me?

And the answer was surprising in its simplicity.

I didn’t want a suite of offers or 16 funnels running in the background.
I didn’t want five lead magnets, two online courses, or a million passive income streams.

I wanted one offer.

One meaningful, supportive, aligned, well-crafted offer.

I wanted depth, not scale. I wanted connection, not conversion tactics. And above all, I wanted simplicity, not systems sellotaped together with “shoulds.”

So I stripped it all back.

I stopped downloading freebies and “advice” I’d never read. I stopped layering on complexity because someone else said it was “smart.”
And I stopped chasing a version of success that looked shiny on Instagram but felt hollow in real life.

The Business That Actually Fits

What I’ve built since then is quieter than most people would advise. My 16-year old self would be shocked, but in a good way. I was so naïve back then.

My business today is smaller and slower, crafted by hand like a piece of art, not manufactured by a machine.

And the best part is that it works. Not because it’s loud, but because it’s true. It’s built on my terms. It’s sustainable. It’s joyful. It’s honest, and it gets real results for the people I work with—because it’s built from alignment, not anxiety.

The Only Advice That Matters

It’s a noisy world out there. There are so many formulas promising fast growth, big wins, overnight magic. There are lots of experts, gurus and people shouting that their method, way, or advice is the best, but here’s the truth.

The only advice that really matters is the kind that puts you in the drivers seat, along with all the things you want and need, like your energy, values, and definition of success.

If your struggling to push your own boulder up a hill by following someone else’s plan, this is your permission slip to stop, and listen to the only voice you need to take advice from.

Yours.

Onwards and Upwards
- Becky :)