Are You My Mentor?: Four Ways to Find The Guidance You Need.
By Kim Castle , BrandU®
[NOTE: Some words in this article may have been altered to avoid triggering sp^m filters.]
It might not come as a surprise to you, but if you interviewed every successful business leader that ever lived, you would discover somewhere on the journey to their success every single one of them had a mentor — someone who guided them with insight and feedback. That said, sadly, less than 10% of the entrepreneurs I meet around the globe have the support of such a trusted soul.
Now... with information overload at the click of a mouse, it’s hard to tell who is really a candidate for mentorship. Millions of entrepreneurs asking “Are you my mentor?”
The dictionary describes mentor as: somebody, usually older and more experienced, who provides advice and support to, watches over and fosters the progress of, a younger, less experienced person.
Mentorship in my life has come in many forms — and not always human.
I was born blessed with blind ambition in my veins. I had an unstoppable vision that even though I was young, I could make any one feel it, because I could feel it. I literally breathed it. But, I wasn’t blessed with a support system. My single mother was just a kid when she had me and was treading water just to stay a float. And every one else in my family, well... how do you think she learned to tread water?
Instinctually, I turned to outside sources.
My first mentor came wrapped in dough — literally. Fortune cookies. Really. It was back when Confucius was writing them, so I thought. Somehow knowing that I needed enforcement to accomplish my vision, I taped each and every one of them to my closet doors to guide each step I took. One that stayed with me all these years is “Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.”
I found my next mentor on TV — a sparkly-eyed TV host named Merv Griffin. I watched him mesmerized at how he spoke to each and every guest as if each one was more special than the last. I learned from this gregarious mentor the art of reflecting another person’s brilliance. No doubt this feeds the core of our branding process.
Later my mentors came through the books I read, Shirley Maclaine, Wayne Dyer and Mark Victor Hansen. Each one providing me valuable insight and loving support for the next step to take. I would eat their messages up like they were sitting beside me at the table I read from. I would live their messages as if they were walking right beside me. I put into action their intelligence as if they told it to me themselves. Because to me, they had.
Now... I’m putting what Confucius, Merv, Shirley, Wayne and Mark have taught me into action as a mentor myself to others — possibly to you.
Before you take the leap and allow someone or something into that sacred space of being your mentor, especially in this information saturated age, I suggest you hold them to all four of these measures when considering them.
1) They truly have a skill that you would like to possess, not merely having a life that you would like for your own.
2) They communicate from a place that connects to you, instead of trying to fit your understanding into theirs.
3) They demonstrate a life that you respect and provide an example you would like to model, instead of you working to see past any incongruent demonstrations.
4) They make themselves available to you (be it live, through books, or even fortune cookies) without holding anything back, instead of positioning themselves on a throne.
By applying these filters to your mentors, you can rest assured that you’re getting information that you trust and a person you respect.
When you finally find your mentor be sure to eat up their wisdom as if they told it to you personally and follow their example whether they are right in front of you or not. If you do, I promise you, they will be with you every step of the way.
Just this past week, I was hiking on a beautiful day in the glorious mountains of southern California with one of the mentors I’ve mentioned in this article. I got to tell him face-to-face the impact that he’s had on my life from afar.
You know what happened? He put a hand on each of my shoulders, looked me in the eyes, and said, “Now I don’t have to be from afar.”
© Castle Montone, Limited
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Are You My Mentor - To learn more about this author, visit Kim Castle's Website.
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Kim Castle
(Visit Kim's Website)
With nearly two decades in the advertising
and design business, with clients like
Domino’s Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV,
Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave
Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products,
Disney, and Paramount, as well as
thousands of entrepreneurs around the
world define, structure, communicate, and
position their business for greater
profits, BrandU® co-creators Kim Castle
and W. Vito Montone discovered that
entrepreneurs could experience the same
power that big brands command for a
fraction of the cost with the world’s only
process-based results-drive Integral
approach to business creation.
BrandU® is helping entrepreneurs grow with
the power of extreme clarity from idea…to
brand…to market™ and helping one million
entrepreneurs become successful and whole
so that they can make a difference in the
world. Are you one of them?
If you want to experience clarity all the
way to the bank™, get started now at www.brandu.com/rd.cfm?id=743.
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