At one point or the other, every successful entrepreneur has had a mentor who helped guide them through their business journey.
Mentors are an important part of a person’s success, because they’d help save you a lot of money, avoid loopholes they faced themselves, and so, accelerate your success sooner than later. The benefits of having one is so substantial that it is always recommended that new and existing entrepreneurs get a mentor as soon as they can.
But while it’s important to have a mentor, not going about it right will only keep you hoping that someday, someone you respect so much would decide to take you under their wings.
If you’ve been trying to get a mentor for a long time to no success, here are 6 reasons no one may want to mentor you:
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1). You’re Begging For Mentorship:
Chasing and begging for mentorship doesn’t work. It makes you appear like you don’t know what you’re doing, especially if the people you’re talking to already know you’ve asked a couple of other individuals to become your mentors.
Like every other kind of relationship, when you do find the right mentor, you two will feel a synergy and know it’s right. The mentor will feel drawn to your personality and startup, while you’ll equally know they’ll deliver on their word.
So rather than running around every networking event to ask different successful entrepreneurs to become your mentors, ask rather for advice on a small problem, and follow up subsequently. Overtime, the relationship built could mature to become a full-blown mentorship.
2). You’re A Know-It-All:
No one likes an individual who believes they’re always right. If you’re one, you need to learn to keep quiet when people you’re trying to learn something valuable from are speaking.
By always emphasising your own ideas or strategies are the right ones, rather than the valuable advice you’re being given, you’ll constantly be seen as repulsive to people who may have wanted to mentor you.
After all, if you’ve got all the answers, what do you need their help for?
Unless you’re willing to listen, accept criticism, and are committed to implementing the advice you’re getting, no one would want to mentor you.
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3). Your Business Shows No Real Prospects For Growth:
Just as money is important, time equally is. And no successful entrepreneur would want to waste precious time mentoring someone whose business shows no real prospects for growth.
If you find that you’re in a slow growth industry, your team members are highly inexperienced, or even your products or services have no real market, getting a mentor to spend his or her valuable time to help guide your path would seem almost impossible.
4). You Have Nothing In Common:
A basic psychology principle shows that people like others who’re like them. This is particularly true in almost all areas of life: friends have things in common, lovers have something in common, business partners have goals in common, and successful entrepreneurs prefer to mentor people who are going through exactly what they went through in a similar industry or simply people who remind them of how they started their own business journeys.
Before you meet a potential mentor, research them properly, and in your speech about how they inspire you, highlight the similarities you both have and how you believe you could someday become a success like them.
If you two are entirely different elements and are operating in totally separate industries, the chances of a successful mentorship would be extremely slim.
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5). You’re Asking For Too Much Time & Attention:
Different individuals usually have varying amounts of time and energy they could allocate to mentoring a certain entrepreneur. But when it gets too tasking and requires them taking out of their own business and family time to attend to your business, they could eventually take a step back and advice you get someone else who has more time than they do.
To avoid this situation, it’s best you let your mentor pick when and how often you can reach out to them.
6). You’re Actually Looking For Connections And Not Advice:
The motive behind most entrepreneur’s drive to reach out to a certain individual is largely more about building their network than seeking valuable advice. You can find these type of individuals at networking events and workshops that do not in anyway relate to what their business is about.
These entrepreneurs flock these places not because they’re out to find a mentor who can guide them through their challenges, but to find someone who they’ve read about and would like to meet personally.
If successful entrepreneurs realise that your motive for reaching out to them is not actually to grow your business, but to get to know them personally, they’ll find ways to stay away from you; especially since you add no real value to them.
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What are your thoughts on these 6 reasons no one may want to mentor you? Let me know by leaving a comment below.
