Quote of the Day: Amy Alcott on Motivation

If you’ve ever watched a conversation sour the moment you offered a “helpful” suggestion, then this insight from Amy Alcott is the gentle boundary you’ve been missing: “Don’t give advice unless you’re asked.” It’s a small sentence with big implications, less about silence, more about respect.

Unsolicited advice often arrives dressed as generosity, but it can land as an accusation: you can’t handle this. Even when we’re right, the timing can make us wrong. Advice given too early can short-circuit the very thing a person needs most in a hard moment, space to think, feel, and narrate their own experience. What reads to the giver as efficiency can feel to the receiver like takeover.

There’s also a practical truth hiding inside Alcott’s restraint: people don’t change because they’re told what to do; they change when they feel safe enough to consider doing it. That safety comes from listening, not fixing. In workplaces, it’s the difference between coaching and micromanaging. In relationships, it’s the difference between being a partner and being a critic. When you wait to be asked, you convert “advice” into consent-based support, and that’s real leadership.

Amy Alcott knows something about discipline under pressure: a five-time major champion, LPGA Hall of Famer, and winner of 29 tour events who also moved into course design. When you’ve competed at that level, you learn quickly that the wrong input at the wrong time can cost a shot, and that trust matters more than chatter.

Rather than pin this to a single headline from September 12, the better use is immediate: today, before offering your solution, ask one question, “Do you want advice, or do you want me to listen?” That pause protects autonomy, deepens humanity, and keeps your wisdom from becoming noise.