Pay It Forward

Find a Mentor; Be a Mentor

This week one of the readers of this blog asked me if they could post one of my articles to their Facebook page. My response was yes; as I was confident the reader was posting the article because they considered the content valuable and she felt people in her network could benefit from the article. It was the idea of spreading and exchanging knowledge that motivated me to write this blog in the first place.

Find a Mentor

Some people are fortunate in life to have parents or other close family member who can serve as strong influential mentors to them. Mentors of any kind are great. I was lucky that both my parents were successful sales people; I was able to peek behind the curtain of selling well before I chose sales as my career.

What if you don’t currently have a mentor?

I strongly suggest you open your mind to finding a mentor. However, finding a mentor is tricky. First you need to identify what it is you want to accomplish. Without a clear set of goals for your future; it won’t matter if you have a mentor or not. Also a mentor will not know what to help you with if you don’t have goals you want to achieve.

I would suggest setting goals in the following way to aid you in finding a mentor. Answer the following questions:

1.       If you won the lottery tomorrow what would you chose to do for work?

2.       In 10 years I would like to achieve….?

3.       If I could pick anyone in the world to be my mentor, who would it be?

The answer to the first question will give you an indication if your present line of work is one you enjoy and find rewarding. If you are only doing what you do for the pay cheque a mentor will not be able to tap into your deepest motivation because you don’t truly love what you are doing. If you are in sales and your dream is to be a writer. A natural fit for a mentor would be to find a person who has made a transition from sales to becoming a writer.

Perhaps you love coaching. Look into finding a mentor in a person that coaches; either full or part time. Don’t be limited by your job title when assessing what your true passion can be. Dreams and desires are only limited by one thing, and it is your ability to dream it.

Question 2 will point you towards a goal that is long-term in range. Mentorship should provide you a resource for long term advice and counsel. Trying to get the next promotion up on the corporate ladder is too short term of a goal or career ambition for a mentor to assist with. If you want to be your own boss in 10 years, perfect. Find a self-employed mentor, preferably someone that has made the same transition you want to make.

The final thought is to think big. The Internet has made global communication easy and efficient. Although you might want the President of the United States to be your mentor, you might want to think of a back-up plan for a person you can interact with regularly. Don’t be afraid to reach out and ask someone to be your mentor. I can’t imagine any person being upset by such a request. By asking someone to be your mentor you are recognizing that person as someone who has accomplished a significant achievement in their life or career. Remember flattery is the best compliment. So go ahead and ask.

Pay it Forward

The best way to attract a valuable mentor into your life is to become a mentor yourself. You can mentor a person directly by providing advice and counsel to someone you know in your life. Or you can transfer your knowledge and experiences through a blog, community organization, volunteering, or otherwise committing yourself to help others learn and grow.

Don’t sell yourself short. It is easy to look at other people in life and aspire to have what they have. Keeping up with the Jones’ is common today. Don’t lose sight of what you have accomplished already in your life. Perhaps you graduated from a College or University; you could pay your experience forward by advising prospective students of what they can expect. Maybe you have a hobby and skills others would be interesting in learning. Find a way to share these skills and you will benefit greatly from it.

Looking forward and planning to achieve bigger and better is fine. But you can quickly lose track of what you have already accomplished in your life by focusing solely on the Jones’s. After I graduated University I volunteered as a Big Brother and was truly humbled by the little brother I was able to mentor. Big Brother’s and Big Sisters are fantastic organizations that are always recruiting people to mentor the young people in their programs.

The late great Zig Zigler built his core philosophy of selling around,“You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.” Helping others was at the core Zig’s approach to selling and life. Zig touched the lives of millions of people and we should all strive to follow Zigs example.

Let me know if you have a great mentor…….