Have you ever had the experience where a secret sauce made a difference between just having a meal and enjoying a blissful culinary experience? The same goes for success – there is a secret sauce to produce rapid success.
What is this secret sauce that I’m talking about? The secret sauce is made from one key ingredient:
Mentorship
What is a mentor and why is it important and necessary? A mentor is someone who has more experience than you, a trusted confidante, who helps you to cut short your learning curve. Mentorship is not only applicable to entrepreneurship but in any level of an organisation.
The famous Abraham Lincoln once said, “If I have 10 hours to chop down a tree, I will spend 9 hours sharpening my axe’. When you find a mentor to help you in your business-building or entrepreneurship journey, the mentor will cut short many processes that may take years to develop.
Personally, I was blessed to have great mentors that helped establish my foot-hold in the financial markets and in my entrepreneurship journey. Just like everyone else, I was not sure about two things: if I needed a mentor and how to a pick the right one.
In this article, I will share with you 3 ways to select the right mentor for your journey.
1. Credibility
This is the most important criteria. In a world of fabricated news and content, it is difficult for people to trust available information. It is important to do your research on your proposed mentor before embarking on a journey with him or her.
There are 5 ways for you to discern their credibility:
- Check if they have published any materials. If they are a real domain expert, he or she will have published materials on their expertise.
- Have they appeared in media before?
- Actual experience! Many people can talk the talk, but have they been there and done that
- Have they won any industry awards as a pinnacle of their career?
- Have they submitted any reports or journals for peer reviews?
2. System
Now, a successful business person may not have the right blueprint for you to replicate their success. System basically means “Save Yourself Time, Energy, and Money.
You need to ask your proposed mentor this question, “what is the system that will be used to teach and move me from where I am to where I am supposed to be?”.
The mentor may have a personal successful result, but they may not have a system to coach and groom you to replicate their success.
3. Result
This area is where many people failed to ask their proposed mentor. You need to ask your proposed mentor for proven track record or results in creating success stories through mentorship.
If the proposed mentor is unable to provide you with any track record or result in mentoring people for success, look for another mentor. It is important that you remember to follow through this portion and not look pass it. You will be wasting precious time if your proposed mentor is not a suitable mentor for you.
To your success,
Mario
