Bad Advice
I bet you’re wondering, “What does any of this have to do with selecting a mentor?”
Before we published any of our 22 books, we had a paid mentor who advised us not to focus on publishing our first book. He said we needed to “get good first.”
We obviously didn’t listen and obviously were already good enough.
Mentor’s don’t always know what’s best for you. But, YOU do.
It’s a good thing we didn’t listen to our mentor’s advice in 2013 and started publishing our books in 2014.
Why?
Because in early April 2016, we were paid $20,000 to speak for just a few hours on one of our books in Orlando, FL for a CTO of a $3 billion global organization and 80 of his top leaders from 40 countries.
We’ve been privileged to speak to tens of thousands of people because of our books. We also sold $90,000 worth of our books in just one six week period in mid 2018. Our revenues doubled from 2016-2017 and quadrupled from 2017-2018.
Our books are the foundation for that success.
However, we also humbly understand we can always get better and intentionally work on doing exactly that every single day.
What do I mean “every single day”? EVERY SINGLE DAY!
Ria and I both have been reading Personal Growth and Leadership Development books every day for over 11 years straight and don’t ever plan on stopping. We do much more than that, but we absolutely read every day.
We left our mentor behind.
We did hear enough from our mentor in 2013 to know that person wouldn’t be our mentor as we moved intentionally toward the future WE wanted to create for ourselves. He had given us some great advice previously, but we knew we had outgrown him and his vision for our lives.
We knew it was time to move on and leave him behind, and that’s exactly what we did.
A few thoughts on mentors…
Many never consider they can outgrow their mentor. We absolutely can outgrow a mentor and need to be aware of it when it happens.
Also, a mentor who can help some can’t always help all. We will have different values and a different vision than some and shared values and vision with others.
The key is selecting a mentor with values and a vision that aligns with your own. If your values and/or vision change, it’s likely you may need to also change mentors.
If you have a mentor who is helping you move forward, keep listening. They’re giving you good advice.
If you have a mentor who is saying some really cool things, but they aren’t helping you to actually move forward, stop listening. They’re obviously giving YOU bad advice because no matter how good what they’re saying might be for some, it’s not good enough to motivate and inspire YOU to act. Ultimately, your progress is up to you. But, if you’re not making any with your mentor, you obviously don’t need them. They may actually be holding YOU back!
It doesn’t matter who they are, what level they’re at, how many others they may have helped or are currently helping, or what they’ve achieved. What matters is their ability to motivate and inspire YOU to take action that moves YOU in the right direction.
Leadership Truth
If a mentor isn’t helping YOU move forward and get the desired results, it’s time for YOU to move on, whether the mentor realizes it or not, and especially, if you’re paying them to help YOU get results.
Commons Sense
What’s common sense isn’t always common practice. Often, it takes uncommon sense to act on things that are commonly understood.
I see many who aren’t getting the results they want. Yet, they continue to blindly follow the same mentor(s) year after year.
Why? Why do they keep paying a mentor(s) when they aren’t getting the desired results?
Paying someone who already isn’t helping you get results doesn’t make them become better at helping you get results.
There are many reasons people keep following a mentor(s) blindly. But, NONE of them are legitimate.
The only reason to continue to follow a mentor(s) is because they are actually helping YOU get the desired results.
Hope isn’t a strategy!
Hoping they will eventually help you get the desired results is not a reason.
The right mentor will always be helping YOU get the desired results. There should always be movement in the right direction.
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