The most valuable lessons any entrepreneur can learn are from the successes and failures of others. As Confucius said, “Study the past if you would define the future.”

For some people, it’s not so easy. A study by Harvard Business School professor, Francesca Gino, says that because our views of our own competence are often overly positive, “we rely too much on our own information and too little on the opinions and perspectives of others even when they are good ones.” Psychology Today notes that taking advice somehow feels like admitting that we don’t really deserve our high status.

But truly successful people understand that the advice and knowledge of people who have been-there, done-that is priceless. (more…)