I am always amazed at the number of men and women who start a business without engaging a mentor.  Mentors are experienced and trusted advisors.  They do not do the work for their students but they do point them in the right direction or as I am fond of saying: they hold the light high enough so that you can see the right path.

     Having a good mentor often means the difference between success and failure.  A mentor who is doing his job cuts the time line in at least half for his students, if the students are paying attention.

     No mentor, no matter how gifted, can impart his or her wisdom to a student who is not willing to learn.  Thus, the old adage kicks in: “When the student is ready, the teacher arises.”

     Finding the right mentor is as important as finding the right marriage partner.   A good mentor is going to have an intimate knowledge of who you are and how you work.  They will be privy to many of your secrets, so the word trust cannot be overemphasized in this situation.  A good mentor must have had front line experience in a business situation that is similar to yours.   It is preferable if the mentor is in the same business as the one you are in, but it is not mandatory. 

     A good mentor must be willing to share his/her time and experience with the student and in return, the student must apply those life lessons or there is no point in developing a mentorship.     I mentored a young man several years ago who I eventually gave up on.  His only purpose for calling me was to find someone who agreed with him and someone to tell him how to extricate himself from his troubles.  He missed the point of mentorship.  A mentor does not always agree with you, in fact it is the mentor’s duty to point out when you are wrong, and if you are paying attention, a mentor teaches you how to avoid trouble.

     One of the reasons I am so bullish on mentorship is that I have had such positive experiences with mentors.  I have only had two in my life, one from my university days and one from my early days in business.  My mentor from my university days had such a profound impact upon me that many years later, I was asked to deliver a eulogy at his funeral.  As I looked around at the people assembled to honor his life, I noticed many in attendance were former students.  They, like me, had come to see their mentor off.

To honor him best, I included many references to the lessons he had taught his students.  Typical of a good mentor, he had many parables, axioms and short stories in his arsenal when a question needed an answer, and those were shared amongst the mourners.

     My second mentor, my green industry mentor, had started in this trade in 1946 and he was and is still today, sharp.  The man is a walking encyclopedia of this trade.  I first met him when I was a very impatient, young man in the 1970’s.   I was always in a hurry to get things done and I detested people who wasted time.  I was actually annoyed by my mentor when I first became acquainted with him, as he asked far too many questions for my liking. Some of his questions were so simple that even I knew the answers.  Later on in life, I came to realize that the man was so knowledgeable, so experienced, because he asked questions.  In an odd way, he was always on the search for truth.

     My mentor taught me the life lessons that I needed to learn and they have stayed with me for thirty years now.  His axioms included “when in doubt, we go to the forest for Mother Nature is the greatest teacher of all” and “every man has a style, a habit in which he works, and it permeates everything he does.  Show me a man with sloppy book keeping and I will show you a man with weeds in his fields.”

     Those axioms may appear to be trite, but they were my reference points for the rest of my career.  My mentor instilled within me a sense of pride and a willingness to excel.  When I was going down the wrong path, he would point me in the right direction and when I was moving too fast for my own good, he would slow me down.  I will never forget the time I poured my heart out to him, telling him my greatest fear was that I would never accomplish all that I wished to accomplish.  He said to me in typical mentor fashion: “There is plenty of time left” and I responded: “Are you sure?”

     We flash forward many years to the present.  I now mentor half a dozen young men and women.  I am returning what was given to me.  I listen to their stories, their concerns, and their questions.  Their stories are the same as mine once were.  They are uncertain of their futures and they are impatient.  Success cannot come quick enough for their liking. 

     So what do I teach my students?  I tell them that everything they do is a building block for the pyramid of success.  That you cannot have a pinnacle without a base, that the base takes time to build and that it must be true and strong.

     I instruct them to first write a mission statement, a guide of whom they are and where they want to go.  My mentor always instructed me “a plan is never a plan until it is written down”.

     Next, I insist that they write out a business plan, so that I can see how close to reality their thoughts are.  Armed with that business plan, they can start off in the right direction.  One of the first things I insist upon is that they develop a good relationship with a bank or credit union.   It is in their best interest to become known to their account manager and to their financial institution.

     The next thing I insist they do is to seek proper advice.  I was several years into my own business career before I became aware of just how important it was to have a Chartered Accountant advising myself.  I, like so many other young entrepreneurs, thought that those fees were a waste of good money and that I would do the book work myself.  Well, my experience taught me that many people have the ability to complete the bookwork, but few have the ability to chart the course.  A good CA is comparable to the navigator on a ship.  The same can be said for competent legal advice.  There are too many laws and regulations and too many pitfalls in the business world, not to have a good lawyer on your team at the beginning.

     Axioms that I pass along to those I mentor include: The first rule of business is always know who you are doing business with.  An honest person will always treat you fairly, whereas a scoundrel must always be watched and he is not generally worth the effort.

     The second rule of business is never trust anyone who says trust me or I wouldn’t lie to you…because they are lying to you!  Trust me on that one.

     The third rule of business is you don’t have to know the man who knows the answer, but you have to know the man who knows the man who knows the answer…in other words, set up a network where you are only two telephone calls away from the answer to any of your questions.

     The fourth rule of business is tenacity will take you places where talent never could.  Stick with it.

     The fifth rule of business is listen to the winners.  The losers don’t get to tell you how to do the job because they don’t know how.  Keep your advisors to a small, select group.

     For most of us, mentorship is the difference between success and mediocrity…and mentorship puts you on the road to success.