We can only offer up an honest opinion - or advice -  if we, too, have been through the experience. They say that hindsight is a wonderful thing, yet hindsight can only be achieved through having had an experience of something. There are many people who say that they should have done this or that when looking back to the past, but that is when they gain hindsight because then, they would have already been through it.

So therefore, before honest advice is given to anyone, better that the person giving the advice has already been through the event. Then they are better qualified into giving an honest opinion to the person seeking it. Yet there are so many people who are only too willing to give their advice without ever having been through what that person has been through. How then can they offer up an honest opinion? It would be virtually impossible to do so, given the fact that they have not been through such an event.

The only honest opinion one could offer up would be to tell that person to go and ask the advice of someone who has already experienced it. The value of this is that because the one giving the advice would have already come across the situation, they would then be in a far better position to guide the person seeking answers to their problem.

This would help them far more than for someone to offer up their opinion without ever having been through the event. This is because the advice they would give, would be defunct, and without foundation. So, with that being the case, it is always better to have experienced the situation before offering up advice. It would then be up to that person to decide whether they would heed the advice given or to not heed it -  as the case may be.

To offer up advice on the basis of ignorance, would only be adding fuel to the fire. Not to mention confusion as well. To talk about something that you may have absolutely no knowledge about at all, would only be offering false information to that person. And they may go on to do completely the wrong thing without getting a second opinion from someone who would be better placed to guide them.

So always offer up advice only if you have experience of the event. If you do not have experience, then tell them to ask someone who is better placed to give an opinion. This would be the correct and honest way to go about guiding that person to them seeking the right answer to their problem. In this case, you would be helping them - rather than adding to their confusion and problem. 

The value of experience is that having already been through the event, a person is better placed to answer nearly all of the questions that someone may be seeking. This will, in fact help them to make their minds up as to what to do next.