Entrepreneurs who succeed in business on their own are few. If you are not one of them, (and you would not be reading this if you were), you should not consider that to be some kind of personal defect. You are just like everybody else who needs a good mentor in order to succeed. Millions of people try their hand at starting their own business, and only a handful actually makes it. Why is this? A shortage of good mentors is one of the most likely causes underlying this phenomenon.
There are many mentors out there, but there are few really good ones. In order to find one, you need to know what to look for.
Who is a good mentor? A person who:
1. takes a personal interest in you and in your success both because he or she wants you to succeed and because your success also means his or her success.
2. knows the business very well and is successful in it.
3. is skilled at teaching others what he or she knows and is willing to do that.
4. is capable of perceiving your strongest qualities and can motivate you to utilize them to the best of your ability.
5. is capable of keeping you inspired through the initial difficulties of starting the business
6. is available and accessible (The importance of this cannot be overemphasized!)
7. is interested in you as a whole person, in what is going on in your life outside the business, so that he or she could better understand how you function within the business.
8. is well respected in the whole organization.
9. values the initiatives and the opinions of others even if they are less experienced.
10. demonstrates a positive attitude and acts like a role model.
Success in business is just a side product of the supportive, respectful, honest, and diligent cooperation, in which the expertise of the mentor and the willingness and the ability of the mentee come together and create a visible outcome. When the common interest is combined with the mutual support and respect -success is inevitable.
A good mentor often becomes a cherished and respected friend. Who wouldn't cherish a person who has taught them how to run a business successfully? Who wouldn't work for someone who has his success at heart? Who wouldn't appreciate a person who has mentored him or her into financial independence?
Finding one is, therefore, one of the most important of all the factors that contribute to a successful business venture. No effort should be spared in making sure that your money, time, and energy are invested in a business that involves the highest quality of support. That, more than anything else, makes your success in business inevitable.