Giving Back Through Mentorship

A lot of people feel like they have to know everything in the world before they can be a mentor. We feel like you have to achieve a certain amount of success or money or accolades before you can become one. We’re here to tell you today that you don't have to. You know, one thing when we think about mentorship is that most people go their entire life trying to acquire knowledge, but very few people actually have the mindset of "what can I do to give?".

You can’t say you want to mentor somebody in accounting, but you don't know a thing about it. You've got to be able to identify what you're good at and then use that as a way to mentor somebody. We don't think you should count yourself out. Your negative experiences can also be a form of mentorship and can help someone learn.

A lot of us make it seem so much more complicated than it really is. Mentorship is more like guidance. It doesn't have to be, “Oh, this person's a millionaire or whatever.” It’s more so like, “I'm a dentist, and I might look for someone who does this one procedure that I don't do, so they can mentor me in how to do the procedure.” People think mentorship has to look like "he's better than me in everything," and people also think they have to be great at everything to mentor someone.

The first step toward mentorship is to share knowledge freely. But can you really decide to mentor someone if they haven't come to know you? It's a trust thing. It's all about building that relationship. A mentor is going to build that relationship, and they're invested in the long-term relationship. It's not like an advisor, where you're just providing a service. That's a little bit more transactional or less relational. On the mentor side, it’s the opposite. Most of the time, there's no benefit to you. You just get the joy of seeing someone do better.

You need to know that failure is also knowledge. You can go back to these kids and say, "Look, I did this, I did this, I did this and look where I am now. You don't want to be here, but looking back, you see how much has that worked". There’s no point in me bumping my head and then you going to bump your head in the same place. You didn't tell me this corner was here.

A mentor is someone who helps you frame your decision-making. If you have a lot of decisions to make and need some kind of guidance, a mentor helps you learn how to make decisions on your own. It's something to be said for learning how to manage life. Having a mentor who can give you some kind of guidance like, "Oh yeah, I've been there. You're not the only one there. This is how I made my decision. I'm not telling you what to do, but I'm telling you how to make your decision so you can have peace about it".

People think mentorship is a burden. They think, "I'm not the person to mentor because that requires time and investment that I don't know if I can provide". The everyday average person looks at mentorship as a big deal because they feel like they’re not qualified to mentor. We are firm believers that any experience that is ordinary to you is extraordinary to someone else. You have to have that mindset because everyone has been blessed with different skill sets.

A mentor in a way makes you be better at whatever it is you're mentoring in. When you have someone who asks a question, you're like, "I never thought about that. I should figure that out". It's always good to have someone to look forward to and also someone you're looking back at to teach.

Mentorship is a powerful tool for holistic growth, benefiting both the mentee and the mentor. By letting go of the need for perfect credentials, acknowledging the value of your experiences both good and bad and focusing on building genuine, long-term relationships, you can become a guiding force in someone's life. Remember, what is ordinary to you might be extraordinary to someone else.

Join our community and let's go Beyond The Grind together! Subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive content and follow us on all social media platforms at @gobeyondthegrind. Watch the full episode at https://youtu.be/jj3zcMTB224.