Starting a business: Finding a mentor
November 21st, 2009 | 
Author: A mentor is a seasoned business person that knows your business and is well qualifed to coach you and help you with decision making. Simply put, you find someone you admire in business and you ask them for guidance. A mentor will help keep you focused on the job at hand. When you are beginning a new business a mentor, or someone you consider a good role model should be no farther away than a phone call. You are fresh out of business school with a degree in business management and you need some seasoned advice. Your mentor will help you decide and once you have decided, will help keep you aligned toward the goas you have set.
Exactly what kind of job have you in mind? Do you see yourself the owner of a pizza joint, or are you looking for something unique and something unrelated to food or franchises. I hear you; you want to start out on your own. What will it be? Who will help? A possible scenerio follows:
You remember your high school art teacher who was the most successful business man you know and you have never known anyone like him, before or since. His glass sculptures gives class to hotel lobbies all over the south. You call him, the two of you get together and you talk. He agrees to be there for you when you need help. The confidence he gives you is priceless. He will not take money or gifts. He asks for nothing in return but he agrees to free vacations at the lakeside hotel you will own someday.
A mentor is not unlike a spiritual advisor, both can be out of tune with your needs at various times, but both have your best interest at heart. You certainly don’t want a mentor who thinks everything has to be his way; far from it, a good mentor only offers suggestions and makes it a point to see things your way. He can only do this if he is older, is wiser, and if he is young enough at heart to remember when he was your age. Every young business man needs a mentor who can come to their aid when the going get tough. There usually is no problem that they have not encountered.
Mentors, most often, are not members of your own families but they can be, but this is the exception to the rule. Family members, even older uncles or aunts or grandparents, who are wonderful and knowledgeable in their fields, are too emotionally involved with you personally to be able to effectively guide you. Sad but true, like father, like son is true, no matter how much you try to prove both wrong. There are exceptions, however.
A mentor is someone you can look up to while not having had any other dealings with them except in your chosen fields. In other words the mentor that you choose is known only to you as the best business person you know. In fact, often it was he whom you looked to when you were deciding to model your business after his.
Choose both your business and your mentor wisely and give both proper respect and consideration while giving neither all your time. A mentor will be the first to insist you keep everything, time, family, business and yourself in proper perspective.
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