On Being a Mentor

Copyright © Patricia Brucoli

I did not wake up one day and say, I think I would like to be a mentor. However, just in the course of things, I find that I am actually becoming one. I love it, too! I can’t think of any other aspect of starting a home business that I like any better than helping others along the way, in much the same way I have been helped.

It happened through networking with other internet marketers and the beauty of it was I didn’t really have to know all that much to start with. As I learned, I had that much more to share. I think just that I had the nerve to offer my advice a few times in a forum, people began to send me private messages, asking me for more advice!

The great thing about this is there will always be someone who knows less than you do, even if you have only a small head start on them.  These are the ones that need your guidance.

In my opinion, a mentor can have a huge influence on you. A true mentor – is not just a ‘coach’ who will give technical or specific information. A mentor is someone who does have technical knowledge and information, but more than that, they have some insite into human nature and can empathize with others.

This has been so spiritually enriching for me, that I can’t imagine charging money for doing it, as somehow this may detract from the atmosphere created when we reach out to each other for help. Then again, I can remember a time when it was getting to be a full-time job without pay, just answering emails from people asking for my input. Giving is great, but I do have a business to run as well!

However, in that the core strategy of internet marketing is building relationship and trust with your prospects, mentoring may be the perfect way to recruit. Although like networking – to ’know and be known without an agenda’ – we can’t exploit people and pretend to have their best interests at heart, if we just see them as a prospective customer.

You see, in addition to being a coach and cheer leader, a mentor needs to really be a friend. With your friends you share everything that you have to give. If you are to be an effective mentor, you need to feel this way about those who turn to you for advice.

I would like to quote something here that has really been an inspiration to me and hope that any would-be mentors may also be strengthened by it. I don’t remember where I found it, but no matter how many times I read it, it is profound.

The Parable of the Spoons

A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, “Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like. “The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew which smelled delicious and made the holy man’s mouth water.The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths. The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. The Lord said, “You have seen Hell.”They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man’s mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The holy man said, “I don’t understand.”