The most successful people in the world listen to their gut

On last weeks ‘The voice’ Will-I-Am declared at several points that he was listening to his gut for advice on who to choose for the final spot on his team. He also said that his gut was his mother, a slightly bizarre statement but hey the message was clear; he knew his gut instinct was the one he should follow.

One of Oprah’s coveted life-lessons is ‘always listen to your gut’ – she believes it is an instinct that all animals listen to, but humans have forgotten and sometimes actively ignore.

Take a look at Mark Zuckerberg. His gut told him that students would love a service to connect them seamlessly to each other at their campus. And each of his product decisions, from the newsfeed to photo tagging, also came from gut decisions.


Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Warren Buffett, Richard Branson. They all learned very early on to listen to their initial instinct.


So, what does it mean to listen to your gut? Obviously your gut does not boom with an omniscient voice guiding you through tough decisions, (although Will-I-Am’s gut appears to have a very distinct voice, the voice of his mother), but its does make its presence known… when you get ‘butterflies’ your tummy is talking to you, telling you that ‘this may not be a good idea’ or possibly ‘this is a very exciting situation to be in’. Or it could be an even subtler message, not quite a fully formed voice, what some may call intuition.

I remember the last time my gut spoke to me (it tends to make its presence known on a daily basis), it told me to take my umbrella as I was leaving the house to meet a friend, but did I listen? Oh no! I arrived drenched from head to toe… I should have listened to ‘my mother’.

When was the last time your gut spoke to you? And what did it say? Does it have a voice or is it just a sensation or feeling?