Mentors for Start-ups - A boon or Otherwise?

There has been a lot of discussions lately on various forums with regards to whether having a mentor is a good idea or not.  LinkedIn, Twitter and other networking platforms have a controversial view on mentor backed success ratios in start-up businesses.

Today, I am writing to clarify few facts:

- Mentors are approached to help individuals and businesses to avoid certain traps and mistakes that the mentors have faced in order to take the business to the next level.
- Mentor alone does not guarantee the success rate of the business.  A lot of other factors are involved as well.
- Mentors are subject matter experts with domain expertise built over a period of time.  They cannot answer or cover the entire business entity at one go.
- Mentor acting as investors may or may not add credible value towards the growth of any business.  It really depends on how the entrepreneur / individual value the knowledge and experience off - loaded by mentors in application.  Mentors, acting as investors, are also taken a little more seriously by people due to the financial support.
- Entrepreneurs or individuals aiming to grow in a particular field, should be able to distinguish mentors from mere advise givers, trusting their gut feeling.  It is the human tendency to give advises on various topics that may or may not be directly applicable to the product or service being offered.
-  One may keep more than 5 mentors at different levels of their growth process and also with different domain expertise.

For running a successful business, a lot of factors are needed to be considered:
- Current and near future market dynamics
- Opportunities in form of challenges
- Mentor advise based upon their experiences
- Financial & risk management
In case of funding received, how to delegate the money towards building other aspects of business
- Human resources & operations management
- Time management
- Knowledge & self development

I believe that in order to become a success, one should be able to:
- understand that change is the only constant
- one should continuously pursue excellence in all aspects of their lives

This means, that in order for one person to grow, he or she should be able to tediously and gradually keep updating their own practical and technical skills.  Regardless of whether you are an entrepreneur or any other professional, one should invest in their own development and pick up few skill sets that can make them stand out from the crowd.  This not only will help build confidence levels but also help one to be recognized among their colleagues and associates.

A lot of times, it becomes difficult for most entrepreneurs to invest in self-development.  This not only restricts their bandwidth to expand neurologically but also limits their original thinking process.  Reading more books, articles, blogs not only fuels one's imagination but also gives ideas as to better their own skill sets.  A lot of successful people such as Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and many more invest a lot of time in reading substantial books.

You will be surprised as to how many people can find direct answers to their more pressing problems just through reading.

Another common mistake a lot of us do is copying other practices of more successful businesses.  This needs to be mitigated.  One formula which has worked for one business may not be the answer for the other business.  What does work here is the more profound your thought processes are, the more clarity your business and people in your organizations will get.

We, at Entrenador Consulting, believe that more time you invest in self-development, the more you promote and want to see development of others.  The more developed your team is, the more success your business will be.  The more success your business is, the more recognition you receive from outside.  This chain reaction helps you find better talent and retain talent easily.

Moral of the story:  In order for one to grow, have mentors who can support your growth from different perspectives.  You may also keep or leave a mentor depending upon how many benchmarks you keep for yourself and your team in order to attain excellence.  Mentors are not the solutions to every problem. But if you strive to become a model of excellence for others, you may in turn become an inspiration for them in coming years.  Remember, that excellence is only role model and that takes time; and change is the only constant one needs to adjust with.


Article written by our Entrenador Shruti Misra