Mentors and Coaches

Once you have chosen your focus do a little research and find out the names of the people who are where you would like to be, and then call them up.

Why reinvent the wheel? Find someone who is doing well in what you want to do and make that person your mentor and coach.

They have not only mastered the information you need to succeed, but they have mastered the all-important skill of how to best apply that information for maximum success.

I could go on and on about coaches and how they will save you time and effort but it’s more impressive to let a list of top references tell the story.

· Fortune Magazine ...“In a recent study, training alone improved leadership skills by 22%. When combined with Executive Coaching, improvement jumps to 77%."

· The Chicago Tribune …“Who exactly seeks out a coach? Winners who want more out of life.”

· The Harvard Business Review …“The goal of coaching is the goal of good management— to make the most of an organization’s valuable resources.”

· Time Magazine ...“Coaching is an action-oriented partnership that, unlike psychotherapy, which delves into patterns of the past, concentrates on where you are today and how to reach your goals.”

· The Business Journal … “A coach is part advisor, part sounding board, part cheerleader, part manager, and part strategist … The coach prods the client to keep to the action plan.”

· Newsweek Magazine … “Part consultant, part motivational speaker...coaches work with managers, entrepreneurs, and just plain folks, helping them define and achieve their goals.”

· Money Magazine… “The benefits of coaching appear to win over even the most cynical of clients within just a few weeks.”

· CNN.com … “Once used to bolster troubled staffers, coaching now is part of the standard development training for elite executives and talented up-and-comers.”

· Business Week … “As for coaching, having someone listen to you and encourage you, and break everything down into easy concrete steps is rather nice.”

· The New York Times on the Web … "[Coaches] are becoming popular with professionals and entrepreneurs seeking to improve their performance in business, to better their relationships, and to help set goals."

(That’s a positive report! The truth is you can find a coach or mentor for many areas of life and most successful people use them often.)

I was on a conference call with a multi-millionaire who was teaching all about the need to find a mentor. Back in the day when he had just graduated from business school, he sent his resume out and was met with 100% rejection. Not one company wanted him.

He then sought out a very successful businessman in his community and asked him if it was possible to be successful without going through the corporate world. That businessman told him it was possible and agreed to be his mentor and showed him how to become the multi-millionaire he is today. He now makes more money than all those people who rejected him combined.

Get hooked on the success of the Mentor relationship. One of the very important things this multimillionaire advises is to find a mentor who is incredibly successful in what you want to do and get them to teach you how to do it.

The problem though is getting these highly successful people who are usually extremely busy to help you out. What was his answer for this one? I’ll tell you:

1.                     What are your three most important projects right now?
2.                        What are your three top priorities right now?
3.                        I would like to volunteer to help with these projects free of charge. Is there anything I can do for you?

Two things may happen if your chosen mentor decides to take up your offer. 1. You may learn a ton of trade secrets on how a successful person runs their operations. 2. They may want to repay your kindness and show you the ropes of how to be a success. Become an apprentice to success and you will become successful at what you choose to do!

Besides professional mentors there are also peer mentors and coaches. In fact, a good portion of the secrets from this program came from friends of mine who were the top students in their area of study.

Where can you find some of these peer mentors and get to know them? There is a very good chance you will find them in the clubs. No, I do not mean the bars and nightclubs -- even though they could also be there, but the place to find them is in the clubs -- the political science club, the writers club, you know - the student clubs. So what am I trying to say? Yes, you got it…Go Clubbing!

All right, some of them could be geeky but some of them are just brilliant and most of them are there because they have a passion for what they are doing.

Statistics say those who make use of the clubs do better and have a better time in school. Rub elbows with the best and their success and passion can rub off on you. Some of them are great people to go to for direction, questions and the inside track to teachers. You can also have a lot of fun.

It would be ideal for you to have a mentor for each class, someone who can guide you, someone who has been there and succeeded, someone you can just call up or send an e-mail to when you’re stuck or have a question and they will answer you within hours.

It is wise to get their advice ahead of time, even a semester or year ahead of time. Don’t walk into things blind, walk in already knowing how to master whatever is before you! Don’t give your life over to trial and error. Be wise and use these principles of wisdom:

5 Levels of Wisdom

1. There are those who lack wisdom entirely and they don’t learn from their mistakes.

2. Others are more wise and eventually learn from their mistakes.

3. Yet others are even more wise they learn their lessons from making a mistake only once.

4. And then there are those that are truly wise. They learn from other people’s mistakes and good examples and don’t have to make the mistakes themselves.

5. Then there are those that are exceedingly wise who learn from everyone and everything and teach wisdom to all.

1. Contact possible mentors. You can start by looking on the Internet for mentors and develop from there. Look for the individuals who are leaders in their field. You can find them in schools, companies, seminars, agencies, and guilds. For example: if you want to write public policy on Capitol Hill, then call up the government agency on Capitol Hill, tell them your story and ask them who would be best for you to speak with.

2. Once you have found a possible mentor send an e-mail, a snail mail, make a phone call, contact them indirectly through others, volunteer to help them in their current projects, and then ask their advice for your education (what schools, what major, what books, seminars, tapes, and people you should look into).

Once I came across a musician who was playing just the kind of music I wanted to create. I went to his concert and found out where he would exit the theater after the concert. When he came out of the door I told him how much I liked his music and asked him how I could develop myself as a musician. He outlined for me right then and there what I should do. You wouldn’t believe what he said. Even though he was a Jazz-fusion musician he told me to listen to classical music.

I did a little research and found out that his principal influences were certain kinds of classical composers and then I understood how he came to play the way he played. You should know that people who are awesomely successful most often have awesome methods for doing what they do.