Foundation Stone #28 - Have a Mentor
Have a mentor who can guide you through your career. Ask yourself who your role model is and the person who can guide you through? If you don’t get one in your mind, then you better find one. Why do we need a mentor? When one says he/she wants to become like someone, what has to be understood is to become successful and gain the expertise like the role model in the same area rather than thinking in terms of the monetary factor or the status quotient. The role model you are thinking might have undergone so many difficulties and lessons to reach that position. The benefit of having a mentor is to get those valuable lessons, to do’s and not to do’s. This will help in fast tracking your career (but doesn’t mean that you will undergo the same challenges and same hurdles) by taking those already learnt lessons and not falling into the same pit as he/she has undergone. Another advantage is the experience factor and the ability to assess situations and take right decisions. A lot of decisions that involve a change in your life will require second opinion to make sure that you are taking the right one. A mentor could help in giving those opinions. Sometimes our decisions are also tied with emotions and it becomes difficult to arrive at, a mentor could help in suggesting the right choices in those times as well. More reasons on why you need a mentor, please read Rajesh Setty’s “CIOUpdate Column: 10 good reasons to have a mentor“.
Karthik Said,
January 17, 2007 @ 10:25 am
Good One Ramesh.
As you said mentor should be some one who you want to emulate 100 percent….
the best way to choose is to see whether that person is/Has what all you always wanted to be/have and ofcourse he willing to teach you…