Everybody Is An Expert

If you've been following my social media lately, you are aware that I have been having issues with my 1977 VW Van. It's been in and out of the shop for the last month.

(I wrote about the last time it went into the shop on my blog post titled Great Customers.)

Yesterday I picked it up for the fourth time and, knock on wood, it's running better than it ever has since I purchased it.

Throughout the last month as people would ask about it, I would let them know it's back in the shop. They would ask what was wrong and I would explain some of the issues I was having. In some cases people would start offering their opinions as to what was wrong with it.

Personally, I love cars but I'm not a mechanic. I don't play one on the internet and I don't pretend to be one in real life. I leave that stuff to the experts.

Construction, I know.

But even within construction, there are many aspects that I don't know to the level of some of the experts I work with.

Electrical, I leave to the electrician.

Plumbing, I leave to the plumber.

HVAC, I leave to the mechanical team.

Engineering, I leave to the engineers.

That being said, I have been building and renovating homes for 16 years now so I know more about all aspects of construction than most. In addition, my team and I have been a part of every single Certified Passive House in Ottawa except for one so we especially know more about building energy efficient homes than most people in the industry let alone the general population.

But, there are still people who believe they know better. People who have done a renovation to one of their houses in the past or people who have helped their dad renovate their home when they were growing up, for example.

Does this mean I won't listen to what they have to say? Absolutely not. I may learn something new. However, the weight their opinion carries over my experience or the opinion from one of my team members or expert sub-trades is much less.

For my van, did I listen to people's opinions as to what they thought the issue was? Sure! But I did not believe their opinion over the opinion of my mechanic who had been working on VW Vans for 35 years.

Everybody has an opinion but not everybody is an expert.

The next time you are looking for an opinion or giving your opinion, remember, there is a difference between an "opinion" and an "expert opinion".