Helping the Others You’re Helping Yourself

We have organized a unique discussion panel during the second edition of the Congress of Generations, involving the Early Warning Europe Mentors. The discussion was moderated by one of the best known Polish psychotherapists, Wojciech Eichelberger.

Early Warning Europe (EWE) mentors put share their knowledge, experience and expertise and, most importantly, time free of charge, with the entrepreneurs facing business trouble.

The group of 120 Polish mentors includes, first and foremost, actively working entrepreneurs. Among our mentors you may also find domain experts: lawyers, finance experts, consultants and psychologists. These people have a lot of work on their hands, while the expertise and know-how they have is very much sought after on the market. All of those experts have one thing in common: a unique commitment to help others. This is why we appreciate their involvement in entrepreneurial community outreach so much. All of the mentors have been readied for their new role in the Early Warning Europe program by the Family Businesses Foundation.

As admitted by Ewelina Pisarczyk, one of the mentors and successor at the Majsterpol family business - The fact that we work free of charge does not mean that we work for free. We receive numerous non-financial benefits. These include: beautiful relationships, inspiration and support from other mentors who remain in the same boat, development workshops, supervision meetings and, finally, emotions that are priceless, Pisarczyk said.

Wojciech Eichelberger claims that selfless nature of the relations brings everything up to a whole another level. In the reality around us, where almost all of the relationships are transaction-based, presence, brainstorm and experience exchange gain a highly unique value.

- It’s far from easy to work without a financial gratification, says Agnieszka Simon-Adamczewska, one of the EWE mentors managing a financial business on a daily basis, This gives us an extra boost of motivation. We give everything we’ve got when it comes to the mentoring processes, so that nobody is able to tell us that, working without remuneration, we do not pull a proper amount of effort in. And this is not just impression that I have.

Mentees may thus be sure that the service rendered by the mentors for them was top notch

The mentors tell the stories of their experience through the lens of self-development. The mentor cannot provide readymade solutions taken off the shelf. He/she may only guide the mentee towards proper ways of thinking.

To support somebody in trouble, not expecting anything in exchange, is the very essence of mentoring.

We all know that after we finish up our work we would not hear “thank you” in all cases. But we do believe that the positive energy comes around. And that it is worth trying.

We, at the Foundation, are very proud of the involvement of the mentors, and we are grateful for the energy they bring in. It is a truly unique situation: we have created a team that has become a self-learning group the members of which rely on each other. If that is not enough, the mentors do like their own company - many friendships have been formed, over the course of the EWE initiative. Dear Early Warning Europe friends: Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, on behalf of the Family Businesses Foundation team!