My advice is to take advice with a grain of salt. When it comes to advice, whether it concerns money, travel, marriage, or the arts, generally people are wrong. Regardless, here’s some advice from the boondocks. (1) Laugh a lot, and avoid those who don’t. (2) Never do business with anyone who contacted you first. (3) Realize that it was always about the planet, never about you. (4) Practice philosophy or the arts, which are survival skills, but do not overrate them. (5) In the end, you will be judged by others and, crucially, by yourself, by what you do for others for free. The most comprehensive good advice I know is the Zen admonition to live as if you were already dead.
Marvin Bell