Mentors are valuable

I read something yesterday that talked about about having a mentor and I thought that might be a good subject for a message. There are a few words that might describe a mentor: advisor, teacher, expert, confidante, guru, and perhaps more. But in our business, I view a  mentor as someone who has already learned many lessons as they built their business.   Any person who has succeeded has certainly failed many, many times; that is part of the process for succeeding.

 

I learned a principle years ago that has served me well. It is: there isn't anyone I can't learn something from. That could mean hundreds or thousands of people in all walks of life. I can learn something from everyone, but I can't follow every person I learn from. If I want to succeed, I have to be choosy about whom to follow. To follow many people would eventually get confusing; confusion turns into doubt and people who are doubtful don't do much of anything.

 

I chose a mentor early in the game because he was growing consistently. He was excellent at prospecting and building people into what we call Directors today. He lived out of Minnesota but I met him at a meeting in my first few months in the business. I was really struggling at one point so I asked for his phone number and I called him and asked if I could make an appointment to ask some questions. He said of course so I did exactly that a number of times my first two or three years. We became very good friends over time, and he helped me in so many ways but the most important was I was taught things so my learning curve was shortened. He saved me time. Of course I still experienced many, many failures. 

 

When I called I asked specific questions and always took notes as we talked. Ask questions!  The other thing a good mentor does is be a balcony person, meaning he/she is on a balcony cheering for the pupil to succeed. So give encouragement. My mentor never criticized me. So don't so that if you're a mentor.

 

To keep this somewhat short, do you have a mentor? No?  Why not? You might want two or three mentors - maybe a mentor for prospecting, or a mentor for building high volume, or maybe how to build a large business of sales leaders. Think about it. It will save you time and help you make progress.

 

Enthusiastically,

Gary Burke