I didn’t always believe in having a mentor until recently, let’s just say I was too afraid or proud to ask for help.
I have only been involved in a mentorship relationship for a short period of time. But I can attest, with all honesty, that it’s not only exciting, it also allows you to learn a lot about yourself – especially your strength.
As an entrepreneur, you know that most business fundamentals are the same. This means that someone somewhere has already been through what you might think no one has ever confronted. Although their approach may not apply to your situation; sharing and understanding that particular experience gives you ideas and you do not have to live the experience if someone else already has.
Instead of stressing over finding that one individual who can be your mentor, how about you collect a bunch of people with different experiences and skills?
Looking for a mentor is like looking for a marriage partner except that the more polygamous you are the better.
Eric Schmidt, a renown software engineer, had Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google as his mentors. He attributes his success to this mentorship relationship.
Mentors should be people you admire. People who you personally know already and those you don’t. It can feel belittling to reach out to mentors but, trust me, you will be glad you did.
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Here are some of the benefits of having a mentor:
You expand your network. Your mentor may not be able to answer all your questions and concerns. It is, therefore, likely he/she will refer you to other people, this means that they open their networks for you.
You make better decisions. With the mentor as your sounding board, they give you honest opinion and views about your ideas. This allows you adequate perspective while making big decisions concerning your business.
Trusted relationship. As you interact with your mentors, you become familiar with them and the more challenges you go through together, the stronger the mentoring relationship grows.
You have everything to gain by finding a mentor, however, it is all upon you and your pro-activeness.
