I love LinkedIn, but… Caveat Emptor!
(If you don’t know what that Latin phrase means, do Google it).

If you are a student / young professional / early-stage career executive / business owner / entrepreneur / new to LinkedIn, please regard whatever you read on LI with abundant caution. And I mean work advice, not cute cat videos.

LinkedIn essentially provides a megaphone to any one who is interested. The platform is filled with incorrect advice on every conceivable topic, much of it coming from those with fancy titles and (what may seem like) successful careers. There is NO ONE filtering out the nonsense! Read that line again.

Like any other Social Media platform (and the Internet as a whole), not every thing you encounter will be based on facts, work as advertised, or will be right for you.

Just a few days ago, I read a post by a senior executive in a leading org writing about folks who have significant recurring monthly expenses and personal loans, advising them to “start early, fail faster, dream bigger and become an entrepreneur!” Tragically, influential people have hundreds (if not, thousands) of followers who embrace every thing they put out like an eager disciple. And this is just one example of dozens I encounter almost every day.

Most folks I know who know better, typically stay away from posting criticisms or correcting this mass hysteria, mostly because we’ve tried many times and the delusion is real – it is not easy to combat popular idiotic opinions.

So once again, caveat emptor. Follow the right people, and your feed will likely have at least some proportion of insights that are truly worth their weight in gold. Take the wrong path, and I’m not sure how long you’ll take to reverse its ill effects, if at all you do…