The 7 Mindsets of Mentoring

By successfully using a Mentor to their fullest possibilities, you can set your career path on the fast track to a unlimited income. Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs fail to see the necessary and important role a Mentor plays in the success of your business. A Mentor is someone who will guide through your day-to-day struggles and force you to accomplish the things which you need to complete to build a successful business. However, the biggest and most important role played by your Mentor is the role of an “Accountability Partner.” A Mentor is someone you must stand before and he held accountable for your actions, or lack thereof.  Without an “Accountability Partner” you will be much more likely to give up when you experience challenges along the way.

I will discuss some areas of your business that a good Mentor will help you excel; understanding that these areas are more of a mind sets and requires a belief and dedication to the process to fully comprehend rather than physical activities you can see, touch or accomplish.

The following 7 mindsets will make it obvious as to why you must have a Mentor to be successful.

Mindset #1.     You Need To Follow A Path That Will Lead You To Success.  Starting a business is a very difficult task to do correctly, let alone should you be using a bad business model that provides you with no chance for success at all. You will suffer from information overload from all directions in your life; friends, family, partners, business peers (probably others that are failing as well).  You need to be able to discern the “good” information from the “bad” while maintaining a strong dedication to success. This will be the time for your Mentor to shine through the clouds and “noise” of all others. You want to follow a person that has succeeded, not a person that wants to succeed. This is why you need a successful mentor and why you need to choose this person carefully and wisely.

Mindset #2.     Lack Of Specific Knowledge.  It matters not, the amount of knowledge you have about your area of business, the fact remains that you will always need MORE knowledge to be successful.  If your business model requires constant growth, increasing knowledge accumulation and continuous learning to maintain a competitive advantage, then your survival is all but guaranteed by the use of a Mentor.  Mentors also provide a built-in mechanism to make sure you are not wasting your critical time by exercising actions may actually hurt your business. This process is known as “accountability.”

Mindset #3.     Self-Based Learning Models Do NOT Work.  If you are unfamiliar with the subtle factors that go into building a successful business; you will fall short in the knowledge and manner to teach yourself. By becoming a Mentoree you will drastically short your learning curve and speed up the process to financial independence. Your mentor can accelerate your learning curve to assist you in the process of making money faster and sooner.

Mindset #4.     Delayed Learning Provide For Delayed Earning.  The slower you are to accept the fact that your success depends upon using a Mentor the sooner you will be able to make a profitable income. Your mentor can make sure you earn while you learn. This concept is very critical to your short term cash management. You also need to see some early success to make sure you know you can do this.

Mindset #5.     One Person Does Not A Business Make.  Designing, implementing and executing a business model with only one person is extremely hard and time consuming. Having a Mentor as a sounding board for ideas and potential a mastermind group to assist you in times of question will help you get much needed socialization, area specific knowledge and positive reinforcement. This will also give you some great feedback on your ideas.

Mindset #6.     You Can’t Watch Your Own Back.  Without question, you will make mistakes when starting up your business. You will not be able to identify these mistakes early in the process due to the fact that everyone becomes myopic with their own “baby.” You can not identify and correct your mistakes very well and sometimes not at all. Your Mentor will help you identify these mistakes before they significantly drain your business development and bank account.

Mindset #7.     You Have To Recover From Your Mistakes.  When your mistakes are identified, you need to take care of them and then work to prevent them from happening again. Due to the accountability mechanism inherent with a Mentor, any mistakes that you make will be caught immediately; furthermore, you must account for this mistakes in a manner that will allow you recognize them for what they are, business killers.  This recognition of mistakes, when caught early enough, will allow for growth rather than death by the shear fact of adjusting your business plan to never do that again. Your mentor can help you see and act on these mistakes before you ingrain bad beliefs and behaviors.

Please understand that these mindsets are but a few that I have encountered, both as a Mentoree early in my career and now as a Mentor to others.  I am sure that you will find that are infinitely more reason to use a Mentor in your career.  I would strongly encourage you to seek out a Mentor immediately if you are not currently working with one.