How Losing My Mentor Affected Me!

The Importance of Having a Mentor

Back in November, November 26th to be exact, I posted a blog titled “To Grow My Business Should I Hire a Mentor or a Coach, What’s the Difference?”. In that blog I spoke about the importance of having a mentor for your business, not just a coach, and as I pointed out the difference between the two is simple, EXPEREINCE, not only does your mentor for your business need to have a solid knowledge of how to run a business, but also the practical experience in seeing the potential pitfalls and helping you avoid them. In other words, you need someone who has lived through the good times and the bad and can help you to learn how to navigate through them both.

We all need mentors in our lives, not just for helping us navigate the waters of business, but to help us navigate every aspect of our lives. But here is what I didn’t tell you, we already have mentors in our lives, our mentors are all around us. Whether we realize it or not we are surrounded by family, friends, and business associates that mentor us daily. I recently came to this realization when I was having a discussion with my partner, who as I discovered during our discussions is a mentor to me even though I never looked at her in that way before, our discussion was based on a recent loss of one of my closet’s friends. To me he was just a great friend, I didn’t speak with a whole lot, maybe once or twice a month, but when we did speak we would share with each other what was going on in our lives, both personal and business and hold nothing back.

As I preach the importance of mentors, I, like a lot of us, I felt I had a good handle on life and business and the need for a mentor was minimal, “I don’t need a mentor, I teach this stuff, what could a mentor teach me”, is what I would tell myself. But what I didn’t realize is that all this time, I had mentors all around me. People who would give me advice and at times, giving me a different perspective about the decisions I was making and their proposed outcomes.  

My partner pointed out to me that the passing of my friend in February had a big impact on me and I needed to find a mentor like him to continue to help me navigate the things he used to help me with. It was then I realized she was right, see what I didn’t tell you is that my friend was a retired accountant who would give me business guidance as well as personal guidance when I needed it. The thing is I never looked at it like a mentor/mentee relationship, he was just a good friend who I enjoyed being around. I am very thankful for the time I had with my friend and mentor, thank you Ziggy for the lessons I learned with your guidance in helping me become the man I am today.

So my point is this, we need mentors in every aspect of our lives, and we need different ones for different reasons. The key is to discover your reasons, discover your WHY and then find that mentor that fits your different WHY’s. we all have many, we just do not have one. Thanks to my partner I realize I need another mentor to help me with the one I lost in February. So I am taking action and finding that mentor that will help me fills those gaps left by his loss.

Don’t wander through life wondering if you are doing the right things, take action now, find that mentor who can get you through today, tomorrow and the future. Taking action is the first Step.

Contact us today and we will help you discover your WHY’s and what you really want out of life, www.cbms.co or (631) 721-4347.

‍

‍