The short answer
A mentor lets you buy experience at a discount. I teach people to seek mentors who have done the specific thing they want to do, ask narrow questions, and report back on the action taken. Mentorship dies when it becomes conversation instead of accountability.
In full
Experience is the most expensive thing in business. You either pay for it in years and losses, or you borrow it from someone who already paid.
The right mentor is not the most famous person you can reach. It is the person who solved your exact problem one or two levels above where you stand.
Ask narrow questions. Not how do I grow, but: at forty employees, how did you structure your management layer? Narrow questions produce usable answers.
Then close the loop. Report what you did with the advice. Mentors invest more in people who move.
From experience
The man who taught me the most about margins was not wealthy. He ran three restaurants and knew every number cold. I asked him one question a week for a year and did what he said every time. That single year saved me a decade.
Common mistake
People collect mentors for status and never act on the advice. A mentor you do not obey is just an interesting lunch.
Do this next
- Step 1
Name the one problem you most need solved in the next ninety days.
- Step 2
Identify three people who have solved it and ask one specific question each.
- Step 3
Act within seven days and send them the result.
Questions
- How do you approach someone busy?
- Be brief, be specific, ask for one answer instead of a relationship. The relationship comes after you prove you use what you are given.
- Should you pay a mentor?
- Often, yes. Paid attention is focused attention, and it removes the guilt that makes people ask too little.
By Robert T Fletcher