This question is something I’ve had in mind for a while; Should I find a mentor? Is there someone I should talk to about my career, my aspirations, what I should do? While I think about this, I also think that everyone’s desires are different, everyone’s paths are different and although I might one day want to be for example, “VP of Marketing” or “CEO”, everyone’s life is different. I started my “entrepreneurship” grounds when I was 20, someone might have started when they were 15 or 35. I have all the time in the world to work on my passion project, others have kids, husbands, wives… so really, should I or you find a mentor?
In reality, people say that you don’t have to find a mentor; a mentor is someone you already work with, is someone in your life that just happens to have done amazing things that you also want to do and wish you knew how to! According to Forbes, you should never ask someone to be your mentor because asking puts a load of pressure so, mentor-ship should happen naturally. In my opinion, a mentor should be sort of a secret mission. If you are at work and there’s someone you look up to, don’t ask them “Can you be my mentor?”; instead, do the work, make your work noticeable, absorb all the knowledge that the person you admire has and keep going. The person you admire,doesn’t have to know; I find it easier to just watch them (in a not creepy way!) and learn, learn, learn!
Now a days with the internet, there’s a lot of learning that can happen with LinkedIn, Google and Youtube, you just have to do the work. For example, I just found out about Sophia Amoruso; I don’t know where I was living but I just recently saw an interview with her and totally fell in love. She’s my girl crush, she’s an inspiration, she makes me want to try harder, she’s my role model… she’s my mentor. Now, I don’t personally know Sophia, and probably will never meet her but from her interviews, her speeches, her books, I can learn from her. I look up to Sophia and now when I’m working, I refer to “Sophia’s mind” for ideas, for solutions. She’s my virtual mentor and I that’s what I feel a mentor should be.
So, I think I will stick to my virtual mentors and sources of inspiration. Like I mentioned in the beginning, we all have different ideas, we all lead different lives so, you should take other people’s examples and adapt them to you, make them your own.
By the way, I wrote a post about the books I have on my radar… I just started with Girbloss. In the next couple of weeks I will give you all my thoughts and learnings from it!
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