I want to talk about getting business advice. Actually it could even be considered getting advice for life, life advice. Before I get into the episode I want to remind everybody that I’ve always said over and over again how you can learn from anybody and everything.

I’ve given examples of how birds and other animals sometimes know how to raise their young better than we do. Why? Because they raise them to survive.

Taken that little intro in light, ignore the person, but I want to talk about how I am always asking: “Why?” I’m always wondering why something exists. “Why does it happen? Why did somebody do that?” Of course I saw everybody’s criticism in the comments when Trump’s cabinet went up and said they disagree with some of the things he says. A lot of people seem to be surprised. I don’t care whether you like him or not, this episode is not about politics, nor about anything Trump says or does. As a matter of fact that is the last time I need to mention him.

The idea was being surrounded by people that are going to tell you what they think and will be very happy to disagree with you, but you trust, like them, and have a good, strong feeling that they know what they’re talking about. It reminds me how important this is. Do you find yourself around people that agree with you? Stop for a minute. How are you ever going to learn? Add people to your circle that disagree, people with whom you can have reason discussions to better understand the cause and effect, the why something works or happens, why it should be done a different way than you thought. Then you can run your company better, perform better at work, or create a better company.

Just recently I explained to somebody what underlies the unemployment number. That understanding is in part crucial to your confidence in the future for your own investments and how the economy is going. The note I got back was a ridiculous rant telling me something political. I’m not interested in discussing politics, so if I recognize it as political, I stay away. Why? It’s a waste of my time.

Don’t get confused with what you do day to day. For example, Facebook posts, no matter what is said almost everybody seems to agree. Somebody can say the most outlandish things and everybody tells them how wonderful it is and they’re given compliments. If a friend is suffering, okay, maybe say all those lofty, nice, wonderful things. You’re going to visit somebody in the hospital, tell them how wonderful they look. But if somebody is about to open a crochet store in a major mall, do them a favor: Get them to evaluate the feasibility of that. Inside a company this is probably in general not a safe thing to do, so you may have to do the political thing and all the other things, but I’m going to relay a couple of stories that show you how important it is.

When I was at General Motors we’re all at a coffee machine one day and my executive director a couple levels above me asked a question by giving an opinion. One of those: “What do you think? Where I believe such and such.” Everybody there was agreeing, shaking their head: “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I disagreed. Everyone looked at me like I was about to be executed. He said: “Wow. I’ve been here 32 years at General Motors before somebody would tell me what they really thought.” From that moment on we had a great relationship and almost daily he had me in his office discussing or asking for opinions, ideas. He became a great mentor for me in business as well as analysis. I will certainly never forget Gene Steininger. He was a strong individual seeking the best business advice he could obtain rather than ego satisfying agreement. After all, he would be either taking action or recommending to superiors based on the business advice he received.

When I was leaving GM, Gene asked me, he said: “You’re already targeted and slated to be very high up...