The Benefits of Mentors

Entrepreneurship can be a very overwhelming experience and lifestyle for any individual at times and that would especially include younger entrepreneurs who are also juggling so many other youthful activities and responsibilities of life.

Having the guidance of an experienced entrepreneur can not only teach you many important aspects relating to your venture, but also they can offer advice, encouragement, professional insight and become great networking avenues as well.

I was once shy about asking other entrepreneurs to take me under their wing, especially if they were very successful and highly busy. I felt like I was a little baby and I was intruding into their time for selfish reasons.

However I was quite surprised at how many successful entrepreneurs were willing to offer insight into the world of business and also allow me to even tag along on business projects or meetings to gain hands on experience.

You may even know an individual that fits this mold, but you don�t refer to them as necessarily a mentor, you might just see them as a business contact or a friend, but still that person is somebody you can gain knowledge and receive valuable insight from.

I�ve had and continue to have many different business mentors in my life, all who are equally valuable in their own way offering great advice and also awesome networking abilities.

I have a mentor who owns a Landscaping Business that is extremely successful; actual it�s one of the best firms of its kind in my community. This individual is the very first person to introduce me to entrepreneurship, that�s because this same person was also my high school counselor.

Then I have another mentor who introduced me to the sales and marketing field. He also owned a Travel Agency, which he sold in order to take an executive position with a large financial institution in Albany, NY.

Now he�s the head regional manager over ten states. Until this day he offers extremely important insight into the world of business and finance, and he�s also a very connected individual in Kentucky. When I told him I created a business venture he immediately started to put me into contact with other businesses in our community and contacts that he thought I should know.

Then I also have two more mentors, one who owns a multi-million dollar firm at the age of 31 and was a college dropout. He has always told me important facts about entrepreneurship and he always invites me up to his huge mansion and allows me to kick back and get a taste of the good life that I one day hope to experience myself.

My other mentor is the Vice President of Community Reinvestments at a very large and well known banking firm. He�s not an entrepreneur, but since I want to go into banking and finance he has already introduced me to some very awesome contacts and he has even let me meet him at lunch when he�s meeting with other banker friends so I can get to know others in the industry.

These mentors have opened up doors I could have never imagined, taught me about entrepreneurship, allowed me to experience their lifestyles, let me listen in on conference calls, sit in on meetings and the list just continues to go on and on.

If I didn�t have these mentors I would have been in a world of trouble in certain instances and made some bad decisions due to the lack of professional insight. Many times these opportunities are all around you, because surely you have family members, friends of friends, or business contacts that are successful.

So instead of just looking at them as somebody you know, see if it�s possible to extend that relationship further and become their “reality student.” I promise you the results and outcomes won�t be disappointing.

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