Michelle Rodger: Read between the lines to find your happy ever afters

WE GET advice from everyone, all the time. Growing up it's "wear a hat" and "don't eat yellow snow"; in our teens it's "get a good degree, you'll get a good job"; in business it's "follow the money" and "hire slowly, fire quickly".

But how often, as an adult, do you hear someone advise you to read children's books? Or watch a kids' movie? Rarely, I suspect, yet often the best and most impartial business advice comes from the most unlikely places.

Who'd have thought to look for valuable nuggets of wisdom in children's fairytales, old wives' tales, or even reality TV shows? 71 Degrees North, for example, with celebrities (almost) facing extreme temperatures - down to -40C - and even more extreme survival challenges.

It clearly wasn't created to be an inspiration to budding or already established but fatigued business owners, but there it was, the hidden business message is perseverance; you can always do more, better, for longer, if you just focus on achieving your goal.

There's a book on selling, derived from the quirky, often ridiculously rhymed verses penned by the much-loved children's writer Dr Seuss, in particular, Green Eggs And Ham. It's genius:

"I am Sam. Sam I am. Do you like green eggs and ham? Would you like them here or there? Would you like them in a box, would you like them with a fox?"

Sam doesn't care that the buyer isn't interested at the outset, he asks in a number of different ways offering a number of different options. And he doesn't give up. The buyer repeatedly says no, but good ole Sam keeps offering up those alternatives - a total of 14 times - before he eventually closes the sale.

You know where else to find great advice? The Devil Wears Prada. It's true. Becoming so involved in corporate life, almost to the exclusion of everything else, was the message in the film that hit home with a sucker punch to fledging entrepreneur Gail Walshe.

Told by a friend that the character Andy was so like her, Walshe (who worked for a big five accountancy firm at the time) watched the film and was shocked at how entrenched she had become, to the detriment of family and friends. "It was probably the first time I had taken a minute to see myself as others saw me, and I didn't like what I saw," confesses Walshe.

The message is quite clear in this film. Someone trying to fit in, to do the best job they can and in the process they lose sight of who they are and what is important. They don't know how to say no, and continually use the excuse: "I don't have a choice". In the end, Andy speaks with her over-demanding boss Miranda and asks: "What if this isn't what I want?" Miranda replies: "Everybody wants this".

That question proved to be a turning point for Walshe. She decided that life was going to be very different, resigned from her job and launched Inspire for Impact with friend and colleague Linda Cameron.

Motivating teams and individuals to achieve more for themselves and for the business is a rare and coveted skill amongst leaders. Consider the Oscar-nominated animation, Kung Fu Panda, from DreamWorks.

Unable to grasp the martial arts basics, Po (the cuddly Panda) despairs that he has no chance of defeating his opponent until it is discovered that he is capable of impressive physical feats when motivated by food (he's not alone there). Using the promise of a meal, Po is successfully trained to incorporate his new skills into a makeshift yet effective kung-fu style.

By discovering what motivates an individual it's clearly possible to influence and support them to help them attain their goals.

With the volume of advice out there - whether subliminal or explicit - it's incredibly difficult to know when the advice is good and when it's unfounded.

Movie legend Ingrid Bergman once said: "You must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide."

Walshe agrees. She ignored her gut feeling for years, and when she started listening to it, that's when business and life became fun again.

"Our business is built on listening to our inner genius, our intuition. If it feels right in our gut then we know the advice is right."

Ultimately, the most important thing about advice is to know where to find it, when to take it - and when to ignore it.

Start by looking in the most unlikely places - and trusting your intuition.