Hi Gil, Thanks for the post. I never realized how valuable a mentor could be. I wish I knew about this earlier on it my career.

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[…] so can I.” I just didn’t under­stand how they did it. After speak­ing with a cou­ple of my men­tors, and con­sult­ing with some of my vir­tual men­tors as well (books), I real­ized a com­mon […]

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Gil,
Thank you for the story on how you chose one of your business mentors. I am about to start a new job and will seek a mentor within the organization, using your suggestions.

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Some of the ways I found my own mentors was simply by asking. One thing to keep in mind is that a mentorship relationship is a two way street. I personally have found that most mentors have a common interest in sharing the knowledge and wisdom they themselves have learned. The key is that they don’t want to waste their time with someone who may not be open to use that knowledge.

I found one of my business mentors by meeting him at a networking event I chose to attend. After meeting him and speaking with him for a little bit, I realized we had a common interest in a particular subject. The difference here was that he had been involved in the subject of interest for a lot longer than me. A difference of 30 years in comparison to my own 10+ years. I proceeded to ask him questions to find out more about him and his understanding on the topic. In doing so, and “sincerely listening to what he was saying”, I learned that he could be a valuable mentor to me. I proceeded to ask for his contact information so we could talk more. (If they are hesitant in giving you contact information, that may be a sign to not ask the person to be a mentor.) Later on as the relationship grew a little (a few more brief conversations and asking him very brief questions to get his quick thoughts on a couple of things) I asked if he wanted to get together for a cup of coffee or lunch (with me buying…that always helps). He was open to that.

During our get together for coffee, I asked if he was open to being a mentor to me (within a particular area). He said he was open to being a mentor to me in that area and that he would be “glad to help me be successful in that subject area”. Granted, this was for a business relationship, but a mentor could be for a sport, or a faith based organization or other areas of one’s life.

Hope the above story helped!

Also check out one of my other articles on this blog titled Finding Information about Mentorships

Best Regards,

Gil

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This is very interesting and I acknowledge the value of a Mentor, but how do you go about getting one?

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