essay - GMAT: Issue 7

Question:
“The best way to give advice to other people is to find out what they want and then advise them how to attain it.”

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion expressed above. Support your point of view with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

Answer:
I agree with the statement that the best way to give advice to other people is to find out what they want and then advise them how to attain it to the extent that this advice is effective for people who are not mature. My point to this statement is that the best way of advising to adults or people who are already mature is in another place. My opinion consists of two parts.

First, I believe that the best way to give advice is to make them have ability to consider by themselves. Advising what they should do or how they do is just to solve their current problems. That doesn't solve their future problems, because they cannot learn to find their solutions by themselves. And it's because the advisor gives them the solution instead of ability to solve. For instance, suppose there's a man who wants to get a higher score on a certain examination. The advisor, who has already achieved the target score, can tell him how to study or what
he should do. All right. He might make it, but in the near future he will face the same kind of problem because he will still not be able to make a plan for attaining the goal.

Second, I mention difficulty that the advisor can surely understand the advice taker's problem. In general, an advisor can give the other people an insightful opinion that they haven't noticed, but I believe that a person who understand the someone's problem the most is the someone himself. Therefore, just giving the answer might prevent people from finding a true solution. For example, I have an experience to give my young brother a wrong advice regarding his job through my misunderstanding for his true desire.

In summary, I agree with the idea that giving clear advices is helpful for especially young people. Yet I believe that the best way to give advice should be the same as the way to give people their growth.