Everyone is different and almost everyone has a different opinion. When you end up in a situation with someone having a different opinion it is easy to simply refuse to agree with them and bash their idea.
If you want to improve your life allowing a different opinion to be explained to you widens your knowledge from both perspectives. You may have never thought about it that way, or might have but have dismissed it too early. It doesn’t hurt to listen to them and see how they approach the topic. An example for this is what other people think about whether or not you should rent a place or buy one. There is many opinions on both streams and you can only decide after considering everything. If you just blindly follow your intuition you may get burned in the long run.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. – Aristotle
A counter-example of not listening to other opinions is that it might make you change your mind for the worse. For example you always wanted to start a business but because of the opinion of your family and friends you doubt yourself and quit thinking about it. Allow friends, family and even strangers to bring new thought in, but it doesn’t mean you have to follow their advice or agree with their opinion. You can still discuss the topic with them without having to attack them for it and allow yourself to make your decision afterwards.
Some people are afraid to listen to others to end up not following their opinion. There is nothing wrong with making your mind up yourself. You are the one who has to deal with the decision so you are the one who decides. Granted if your family could be affected with your decision it is worth to involve them. For example starting a business will affect them especially if you share in their costs and you wouldn’t be able to do it anymore considering you are starting out with only costs and no income.
Looking at different opinions is also useful when you are browsing on the internet. Don’t just read one post, don’t only read the positive comments, but also look at the negatives. Nothing is perfect so it can’t be that the specific product that you want to buy only has benefits. Everything has it’s negative effects.