Most successful people credit their accomplishments to the guidance they received on their way to success. The path to success is often arduous, filled with uncertainty, doubt, and failure. Especially for moments such as these, the successful people cannot overstate the value of mentorship opportunities they got in their development. Professionals in any field, be it business, design, or culinary arts, can take advantage of learning from experts in their respective fields.
Then, why is it that many people still haven’t experienced mentorship or are oblivious to even its mere existence ? The truth is, finding a mentor can be a challenge of its own. First, you need to find a role model that profoundly inspires you. Second, the search involves convincing the identified mentor to impart skills to you. This endeavor requires time and effort on their part. Ultimately, the probability of that person to take time out for you is, more often than not, minuscule. And if somehow you are able to cross all these hurdles, there is the challenge of setting measurable goals and well-defined outcomes.
Mentor-mentee relationships bloom over a long-period but provide you with an environment that supports and guides you from day one. However, the mentee has to exercise caution in not simply “copying” his mentor but understand their perspective and experience and apply them in his or her own individualistic way.
If you’re still wondering why having a mentor matters for your personal change – it can be summed up as a lasting experience in which your mentor and you will exchange experiences and skills in order to grow personally and professionally. While the focus will unquestionably be on you, your mentor will also concurrently undergo a change their perspective. Over a certain period of time, this relationship will last a last-time.
For experienced professionals and experts, mentoring can be a great opportunity to transfer knowledge and skill they gained in their complex professional pathways onto the next generation. In its essence, mentorship is the best way to preserve your legacy and be remembered forever. The reward of passing your experience on to someone you choose is often in witnessing them grow and be great at what you taught them. From your perspective, you can think of it as teaching your child to ride a bicycle – being at their side, holding their hand until they are ready to ride by themselves. From that day on, they never forget how to ride.