Why great people don’t always give good advice

EVERY time that I open YouTube, I am bombarded with ads offering various video masterclasses from the great and the good – often at a significant cost.

The intuitive appeal is clear. Wouldn’t bestselling authors, the likes of Carol Ann Duffy or Neil Gaiman, be the best possible guides to better writing? And if you aspire to be an actor, why not spend a few hours listening to the words of an Oscar-winner like Natalie Portman?

People such as these have passed through all the ordeals necessary to reach their dreams, and they should have plenty of lessons to teach us. …