Match Your Mentor to the Goal

If you want a mentor or service provider to help you succeed,

Match Your Mentor to the Goal

If you want to learn how to innovate better, learn from or follow Elon Musk NOT Pee-wee Herman.

If you want to succeed at investing, learn from or invest with Warren Buffet, or his teacher, Benjamin Graham, NOT Robert Kiyosaki.

Kiyosaki sold live events, books and other information products, and THEY were the source of his wealth. Evidence suggests little or NONE of it came from practicing the investment strategies he sold.

If you want to eat for health, not just weight loss, look for Scientific Consensus from peer reviewed research and a group of impartial experts, NOT the Banana, all meat, or some other fad diet. They're usually pushed by a " guru ", normally without a Ph.D. who you've never heard of. They also just happen to be selling their book, shakes, exercise plan and a bunch of related products online or from a table at the back of a cheap hotel conference room.

Here's a free weight loss diet, EAT LESS of whatever you're eating now. Weigh yourself once a week upon waking, but after using the restroom. Reduce the portion size if you aren't losing weight, repeat until you lose the desired weight. It's guaranteed to work, but if your diet is Doritos, bacon, cheese, candy and sausage McMuffin with egg meals, you'll achieve your target weight, be hungry, probably feel like crap, AND be, or become unhealthy:-?

There are a raft of:

Social Media Marketing, Copywriter, Graphic Designer, Sales, Transcription, Web Designers out there. It's very likely they're mediocre at most or all of the laundry list of skills they claim to have.

I'm a multipotentialite with a wide variety of skills, but I would rather send them away, or refer them to someone who focuses on their specific needs unless I am confident I can actually help them. Doing something adequately for yourself, in no way qualifies you to claim you're an " expert ". Think of it this way, would you hire anyone whose resume was a long list of " I'm adequate at's ? "

A man in my network said he was looking for someone to do his social media marketing. He had tried multiple others and none delivered the promised results:-?

I told him " I'm not an expert ", but would be willing to work with him on a performance based pricing model. I feel I'm as, or more knowledgeable about social media marketing than many who claim to be " experts ". For me, it was an opportunity to see if I could help him and add the results to my consulting resume. He didn't take me up on it, but had he done so, it would have been at zero risk to him. At worst, it would have been an educational experience for both of us:-)

I've recently found multiple new mentors. The most recent inspired this article. Nothing special happened, just the thought that she's a valuable asset in my network because she understands something deeply that I know nothing about.

Over the last year I've reapeatedly heard " If you're the smartest one in the room, find another room. " Honestly, I have yet to find a room where I felt like I was the dumbest present, though I wish I had. But most rooms have at least one person who's smarter than me at what they do. While I'm willing to network with anyone but pure takers, whom I disqualify or delete from my network, I seek out those who teach me something when I interact with them.

That's a long way of saying, " match the mentor to the goal;-) "

It's quite surprising how easy it is to mistakenly assume someone with demonstrated success in one area is automatically able to succeed in others. This is a cognitive bias called the halo effect. Wayne Gretsky probably sucks at basketball or jujitsu.

Almost any idiot with enough money, and a little business knowledge can expand a successful businessin their area of expertise, but that's not a great predictor of their ability to help you become more successful unless their skills closely match your needs.

When looking for a mentor, stick close to home.

Many people selling their educational products happily take advantage of the halo effect to sell their wares. With millions faking it 'til they make it, be patient and selective about who you choose as a mentor whether they're paid or not.

If you are paying them, ask for references or recommendations you can reach out to and whose success can be verified online. And finally, remember to check your results monthly or quarterly. If after three to six months you aren't seeing results, find a different mentor.

Match Your Mentor to the Goal

tim #bgreen??

P.S. How Do You Find and Select Mentors?

P.P.S. My Next Article: Preventing Defensiveness in Yourself and Others