Beware of Sharks in Dolphin’s Clothing

This woman you mention may be a wonderful business person and do a lot of good in the world, so I am not going to say she’s a bad person…BUT! The responses she is giving you are certainly not helpful to you nor are they appropriate for a “mentor” who is supposed to be helping. It sounds like she has an “old school” mentality, and is rather rigid in her assessment of what might make someone qualified to be successful. It reminded me of the fight women had to get ahead in the workplace. No credit was given for women’s ability to manage a household, the family finances, the time-management and organizational skills it takes to get a team of people running smoothly as a group, and the sales ability to get kids to do their homework, pick up their room, etc. or to get a husband to remember their anniversary. The coaching, diplomacy, teaching, bookkeeping, financial skills needed to run a household absolutely translate into being talented and accomplished at many jobs, including yours. I invited you to make a personal inventory of your skills in the same manner and translate that into business skills, which would include the ability to be of loving service in nurturing others and to care deeply for others well-being. And you have how many years of experience at that?  

As for your work being “too New Agey” – what does she mean by that anyway? Too soft or too fun or too touchy feely or too what exactly? I always find comments like that rather funny. Sort of like when the woman at the NAWBO meeting I spoke at told me after the speech that I really should dress more appropriately if I was going to talk about a serious subject like money (a reference to my gold tennis shoes). Well, she sold suits for a living, so I knew where she was coming from. And I understand that some people won’t like that I wear tennis shoes, but other people are charmed by it – and those are “My People” and she was “Not My People”. I would suggest that your “mentor” is “Not Your People” – not bad, not wrong, but just not YOURS. I’ll bet there are bunches of people who ARE Your People and will love everything about what you stand for and what you do. And they’ll even like things that are “too New Agey” too, I’ll bet.