Looking for a Mentor? Simon Cowell’s The Man!

Got this from Dr. Jeff Cornwall’s Blog. I find it very appeal­ing because I am a big Amer­i­can Idol fan, spe­cially of the lat­est sea­son (Go Adam, Cris and Danny!), and I would find myself nod­ding to what Simon would say, and feel­ing blah about what Paula says. While Simon gives the worst crit­i­cism, it is his com­ments that mat­ter and it is his com­ments that really turn out to be spot on and help­ful for the con­tes­tants. Paula cheers you up, but in the end, all she does is make you feel good.

Find Your­self a Dreamkiller
http://​www​.drj​ef​f​corn​wall​.com/​2​0​0​9​/​0​1​/​f​i​n​d​-​y​o​u​r​s​e​l​f​-​a​-​d​r​e​a​m​k​i​l​l​e​r​.​h​tml
By Jeff Corn­wall

My father (still an active octo­ge­nar­ian entre­pre­neur) taught me years ago that every entre­pre­neur needs a three legged stool of sup­port — an attor­ney who knows busi­ness law, a CPA, and a banker. With all due respect to my father, I believe there is a fourth leg to that stool that is equally impor­tant — a mentor.

For each of the legs of this stool you need to take care to pick the right per­son for you. Just because a cer­tain attor­ney has a great rep­u­ta­tion and is rec­om­mend­ing by oth­ers does not always mean that there will be a fit with your busi­ness, and more impor­tantly, a fit with you. Ide­ally, the peo­ple who serve as your four legs of sup­port will become an advi­sory team that you can trust to offer clear-eyed advice in good times and in bad.

Find­ing a banker, CPA and attor­ney for your busi­ness is rather straight­for­ward. Talk to other entre­pre­neurs and other peo­ple who know busi­ness to get a list of pro­fes­sion­als to con­sider. Meet with each to find one that truly is a good fit with you and your busi­ness, and who can pro­vide any spe­cific exper­tise you may need.

But find­ing the right men­tor is not as straight­for­ward. It is not as sim­ple as doing a web search or talk­ing to other entre­pre­neurs. The right men­tor may come from your net­work­ing in the busi­ness com­mu­nity. He or she may come from your cir­cle of fam­ily and friends. Your men­tor may be a pro­fes­sor or an advi­sor you secured through pro­grams like SCORE.

Find­ing a men­tor is not like hir­ing an attor­ney or set­ting up your accounts with a banker. It is more like a friend­ship that nat­u­rally kin­dles and then grows in inten­sity over time. You can never really choose a men­tor — it just seems to happen.

So what makes a good busi­ness mentor?

A Dreamkiller, not a Cheer­leader. Entre­pre­neurs seem to always have plenty of cheer­lead­ers. Fam­ily and friends are there for encour­age­ment and lift­ing your spir­its. A good men­tor is some­one who will tell you the truth — even if it hurts. My stu­dents and alumni will some­times refer to being “Corn­walled”. When they bring their ideas or fledg­ling busi­nesses to me for advice, my job is to try to find every weak spot, every pos­si­ble flaw, every vul­ner­a­bil­ity they face in the com­pet­i­tive mar­ket. One stu­dent once said to me, “Dr. Corn­wall, you are such a Dreamkiller.” As much as I would love to join the ranks of cheer­lead­ers, I know that my role has to be to help ensure they get their busi­ness right and find their way to be able to thrive in the market.

Trust. A men­tor should be some­one you can share your wildest dreams and your dark­est fears. A men­tor often acts more as a ther­a­pist than tech­ni­cal advi­sor. The stress and strain of start­ing a grow­ing a busi­ness can become over­whelm­ing. A good men­tor is some­one who can lis­ten and empathize with these struggles.

Wis­dom from Expe­ri­ence. Find a men­tor who has “been there and done that.” They may not have all the answers, but they have enough expe­ri­ence to be able to help the entre­pre­neur nav­i­gate through dif­fi­cult times.

Net­work. Along with their expe­ri­ence also comes their net­work. A men­tor can help con­nect with pos­si­ble cus­tomers, sup­pli­ers, fund­ing sources, and so forth.

When you find a per­son who is will­ing to invest the time and energy it takes to be a true men­tor, cher­ish that rela­tion­ship. I appre­ci­ate the sup­port and guid­ance I received from my father and the other men­tors in my life. And when the time comes to become a men­tor for oth­ers, remem­ber all of those who helped you through­out your entre­pre­neur­ial journey.