On Giving Advise to Michael Jackson

(MastePo comes out of summer break momentarily to post this article for your benefit of his wisdom.)

This is not another article about how screwed up Michael Jackson's life may have been and why didn't anyone help him. There are plenty of those out there already. MasterPo doesn't rehash the same things. Beside, how does anyone really know for sure what Liz Taylor or Brooke Shields et al may or may not have said to him or tried to help him in some way? That's not the point of this article.

MasterPo doesn't know what was or wasn't said nor do most of the people who are now Monday-morning quarterbacking Michael Jackson's life.

But MasterPo does know the reality of human nature. And one reality is that people very often just don't want to hear advice no matter how important it is, nor do people want others butting into their lives.

To the latter first…

When it is asked "Why didn't anyone stop him?" or "Why didn't anyone take over?" stop and really think about it. Help or take over what? His life?! Like it or not Michael Jackson was an adult (at least from the legal stand point) for most of his career. He could make his own decisions. Whether that be good ones or bad ones, it's still up to him. As an American he – and you – has just as much freedom to fail as to succeed. In Michael Jackson's case he seems to have really gone down in flames but I suspect the media fanned those flames a lot more than necessary. People far less notable than Michael Jackson crash and burn their lives everyday with even so much a mention in the news. More on that in another article.

The ruination of your life is very much a matter of opinion. What I consider a bad choice for you may seem to be a reasonable risk to you. Who's to say. I certainly don't want someone to have the power to come into my life and second guess what they think is best for me!

Obviously there are some limits and at some point in our lives others do make critical decisions for us that often go contrary to what we ourselves want (like when we are very young or very old). But most of the time freedom means the right to make bad choices and to have to suffer the consequences.

To the former…

It has been said the Michael Jackson only wanted "Yes!" people around him; That anyone who told him he was wrong was dismissed. Maybe, maybe not.

But that isn't uncommon. MasterPo has known quite a few people – bother professionally and socially – that just don't want to be told they are doing something wrong or something that won't work out.

After all, it is human nature. Who really likes being told they are wrong? Who likes having their ideas, hopes, dreams squashed? What great achiever ever did well surrounding themselves with nay sayers?

In another article MasterPo will be posting soon it will be discussed who several people MasterPo knows didn't listen to his advise and have had a lot of heartache and failure in their lives because they undertook courses of action that MasterPo felt was wrong. But the world isn't black and white so who knows – maybe things would have worked out too?! It isn't a crime or a sin not to take advice. Only time can tell if someone else's opinion was better than your own. And even then most decisions are half chance anyway.

It's always easy to say "Someone should have done something!" after the fact. But ask yourself how many times people have given you advise that, if you had in fact followed, you would have been even worse off! And likewise, do you really want others sticking their nose into your business?
We love to see how the mighty fall. But don't get so upset over the tragedy of his life. Other than the human loss, he made his own bed. If you really respect the man then respect his decisions regardless of what you think he should have done.

No one likes an "I told you so!"

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