The Top 5 Benefits of Having a Success Mentor
Having a success mentor is a critical component of making big changes in your life. This post will cover the top 5 benefits of having a success mentor.
In my post How to Find a Success Mentor, I discuss why having having a mentor is important along with 6 keys to finding a great mentor and ensuring they become vested in your success, level-jumping your results.
This post here will cover 5 key benefits you should get out of the relationship with your mentor.
Top 5 Benefits of Having a Success Mentor
1. Mentors generally become your champions…and hopefully your customers
If you’re leaving the grind behind (leaving the corporate 9-5), you need all of the champions and customers you can get.
Successful people have excellent people networks. If you’re doing your part, your mentor will be invested in your success and will advertise for you: “Hey, I know this great guy who can help you out with…”
2. Mentors will open doors to success for you
Your mentor will want to see you apply their teachings and succeed while doing so. Because of this, they will likely pull extra strings to make things happen.
Some of my best contacts are those that have mentored me. They’ve let me know about excellent opportunities and vouched for my capabilities. Most of my promotions and other career milestones have their roots in one of my mentors.
3. Mentors will give you their secrets…and buy you lunch
When I first started working in real estate, I asked one of the top performing agents in the office if I could take him to lunch and pick his brain a bit. He was happy to do so and gave me some wonderful advice. Once lunch wrapped up, he insisted on paying.
The next day, at the office meeting, he jokingly said, “Watch out for Justin. I took him out to lunch yesterday and gave him all of my secrets.”
Another agent responded, “Wow. He talked you into handing over all of your secrets and buying lunch? You’re right—I will watch out for him.”
The point is, people are proud to impart their knowledge and will give you much more than you expect.
4. You will build easier working relationships and lifelong, loyal friends
There is something fairly intimate about the mentoring relationship. Each person is sharing deep parts of their life.
You’re both being introspective. You’re both rooting for each other’s ongoing success. This is a very unique bond.
Ask these 6 people to mentor you »
5. The biggie—risk reduction
As we all undoubtedly know, leaving the grind behind is risky. If you’re the sole-supporter of a family along with numerous financial obligations, it is doubly so. But that risk is manageable, thanks in large part to mentors.
If you want to successfully leave the grind behind, there’s no reason to re-invent the wheel every step of the way. Find shortcuts and avoid pitfalls by spending time with people who have been there, done that. That’s standing on the shoulders of greats.
Should You Pay for a Mentor?
The people who have made the biggest difference in my life have been people who have chosen to mentor me out of their personal desire to help others. However, I haven’t always been able to find just the right mentor. In some cases, it made sense for me to use professional programs. I would consider this coaching rather than mentoring.
There are, in fact, many professional coaching programs out there for pretty much any line of business.
The quality can vary, but on the upside, there are long-standing programs that are staffed with top players looking to add mentoring to their portfolio. People typically love to teach and coach, so this becomes a natural progression for fantastic careers.
If you’re not able to get what you need from a mentor within your network, I certainly recommend exploring paid coaching programs. While they can be expensive, I’ve had very good overall luck and fully believe they’ve paid for themselves several times over. That’s not to say all of my paid coaches have been perfect.
Ultimately, a paid program really needs to get you out of your comfort zone, challenge and criticize your current path, and kick your goals into action. Most programs have multiple coaches, one of whom will be assigned to you. I like to see a structured system in place to ensure, regardless of the coach assigned, my experience will be consistent.
To summarize, paying for a “mentor” (really a coach) is not necessarily a bad thing. If you are having a hard time finding someone within your network to act as a mentor, or you are targeting a very specific niche, it may make sense for you to go for a paid program. As you and your business grow, it will make more and more sense for you to regularly engage a paid coach.
Ready to figure out how to get a mentor?
You’ll learn much more about mentoring and other human network factors in my book, Leave the Grind Behind.
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Also be sure to check out my posts How to Find a Success Mentor and Ask These 6 People to Mentor You.