Summary

The article discusses the importance and role of mentors in entrepreneurship, while also addressing common misconceptions about their necessity for success.

Abstract

The article delves into the concept of mentorship, emphasizing its significance for entrepreneurs. It references the frequent YouTube advertisements by Tai Lopez, which advocate for finding a mentor as a key to success. The author shares their initial aversion to these ads, followed by a curiosity-driven exploration of mentorship. The article defines a mentor as a seasoned guide who supports and motivates without judgment, sharing the example of Bill Campbell, the "Trillion Dollar Coach," who mentored many Silicon Valley giants. However, the author also challenges the notion that a mentor is indispensable for success, citing the scarcity of available mentors and the potential downsides of seeking one, including incompatibility and financial cost. The article suggests that while mentors can be beneficial, individuals can also find guidance through role models, books, and self-reflection, ultimately concluding that success requires personal responsibility and resilience.

Opinions

Mentors are valuable for providing guidance, motivation, and insight based on experience.
The author initially disliked the repetitive YouTube ads promoting mentorship but later became interested in the concept.
A mentor should be humble, supportive, and willing to share both successes and failures.
Bill Campbell's mentorship significantly influenced the success of numerous tech industry leaders.
The author argues that having a mentor is not a prerequisite for success, countering the widespread belief in their necessity.
There are practical challenges in finding a compatible and available mentor, and not everyone can afford one.
Success is a result of personal effort, decision-making, and overcoming challenges, with or without a mentor.
The author prefers independence and self-guidance over constant mentorship, suggesting that individuals can learn from role models and literature.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

“Mentor is necessary to be Successful”. Really??

Why and when do you really need a Mentor?

Have you ever stumbled upon these YouTube advertisements of this guy named Tai Lopez who keeps telling you about finding a mentor? Well, I don't know about you guys, but I certainly have. The damn ad kept popping up every time I tried to watch YouTube, be it a vlog channel, skit channel, or a gaming channel, it just didn't matter anymore. I was so sick of the ads that I stopped watching YouTube for a while. Did it ever happen to you that you simply hated something so bad that you just started liking it subsequently? I got interested in this whole “mentor + hardwork=millionaire” thing. I was like “I need to acquire more about this”. So I looked up every nook and corner of the internet to gain “knowledge” about mentorship.

What’s a Mentor?

A Mentor is a veteran and a versed individual who guides a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. He/She can be older or younger than the mentee. A mentor will be your confidant, advisor, coach, or maybe your role model. Many successful people credit them with much of their success.He/She will always inspire and motivate you, and most significantly, he will never judge. Think about your mentor as a coach. I played a bit of soccer in high school. Initially, I was really into it just by watching people play soccer. Then I decided to join this school soccer team, which had a coach to guide me throughout the pleasure and the pain. If it wasn't for the coach himself, I wouldn't have gotten this good at soccer today. There are some points that I would like to mention:

A mentor

must never condescend the mentee.
must always be humble towards the mentee.
must have great expertise on the career path you have chosen to pursue.
must support and inspire you in your highs and lows.
must share his wrong decisions in life.

You can also think of a mentor as an elder sibling. Someone you would have looked up to long growing up. Even someone you would have watched when he or she got in trouble with mom or dad. But watching them get in distress you would have learned what path not to follow.

How mentors influenced people?

How many successful people do you know? Who are your role models or ideals, whom you follow? Steve Jobs(Founder of Apple)? Jeff Bezos(Founder of Amazon)? Larry Page(Co-Founder of Google)? Do you know what these extremely successful peoples have in common? Yeah! you guessed it right, they had mentors to guide them. But there is one more thing which you missed, these three people had shared a common mentor. Yep! you heard me right. His name is Bill Campbell(1940–2016) and was called the “Trillion Dollar Coach”. In his lifespan, he coached some of the most successful executives in Silicon Valley.[Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Sundar Pichai at Google, Steve Jobs at Apple, Brad Smith at Intuit, John Donahoe at eBay, Marissa Mayer at Yahoo, Dick Costolo at Twitter, and Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook]

With Bill Campbell’s help, these highly proficient individuals assembled utmost performing establishments that generated well over a trillion dollars in revenue. While at the same time, they assist their employees to reach their full potential as leaders, innovators, and change-makers. Bill Campbell strongly believes that :

Your job title makes you a manager, but your people make you a leader.

The part for which you clicked this article

Let me bust this unanimous myth right now. It goes:

In order to have a successful career, we have to have a great career coach/mentor.

This is such a lie, I mean it is always a pleasure to have an internal advocate and coach who intimately knows how your business operates. But it is not necessary to have one. I can name hundreds of people who didn’t have a single mentor in their life. There are several downsides to having or finding a mentor. I have seen several articles which says — “In these 10 steps you can find your Mentor”, just don't fall for that.

Downsides of finding a mentor

There is a scarcity of mentors out there in the real world.
Most successful people do not have time to be your mentor.
It’s is almost impossible to find a compatible mentor.
You need to possess a significant amount of money to be able to afford a mentor.

There is no denying that mentors do not help you achieve your goals. Mentors hold up a mirror so we can see our blind spots, and they hold us accountable for making improvements, they take responsibility for making us better. Soliciting a nifty mentor and learning all you can from the experiences are a wonderful way to assist you with your career choices in your career advancement.

I am the kind of person who doesn’t like to be always guided/supervised/advised to. I just hate being in someone’s shadow. Don’t get me wrong here, this is who I am and I can not change that. So, the only option for me is to follow my role models on socials and wait for them to shower unconditional advice and guidance on me. I can also read some books and try to harness/squeeze every drop of juice left in it. It's totally up to you to choose to either have a mentor or not. For example, if I am at the brink of taking a serious Life decision, I just ask myself — “The thing I am about to commit, Is it any good for me?. If the answer to that is yes, then I am good to go. If nothing works out, then just follow whatever your gut wants you to do.

Success is never easy my friend (unless! you win a lottery ticket). The path to it is prolonged and quite cumbersome. No one ever mentions the pain and the struggle you are gonna go through. Many people have this serious misconception about being rich/successful overnight. And I hate to break it to you, but that never happens in real life.

P.S- I mentioned myself as a good soccer player in the second paragraph. Please excuse my flexing over there. Didn't mean to brag there, I just went with the flow.