The Value of a Mentor
Who has been the most influential person in your career? Before continuing to read this blog, take a minute to think about who has guided you in your life. Who have you been able to confide in and trust to guide you to success? It could be one person or multiple people, there are no rules. Your mentor could be anybody who you keep in touch with who has impacted you in some facet of life. What is the true value of being a mentee or a mentor? What are the top adjectives that come to mind to describe someone you would consider to be your mentor? Do you have multiple mentors or one specific person that is your “go-to?” How many people, right now, would consider you to be their mentor? Now that I have you thinking and you have a few people in mind, let’s continue…
We live in a world where who you know is almost as important as what you know. To clarify, I don’t mean “who you know” in the sense that you will get everything you want without putting in an effort because you have an “in”. I say it because the people you surround yourself with and look up to are the ones who are going to play a huge part in shaping your path to get you where you need to be (or not be). Ultimately where your journey ends is completely up to you and you only.
At a very young age my father always reminded me about the importance of surrounding myself with like-minded people who want to be successful. I have always enjoyed being in the presence of others although I consider myself to be an “introverted extrovert”. I love meeting and interacting with new people every day, learning about various backgrounds and experiences of others. I have no problem walking up to a stranger and striking up a conversation if it’s the appropriate setting. When I first moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 2014 I knew nobody. I slowly built a social group from having no choice but to put myself out there to meet others. I learned to appreciate sitting at a bar or dinner table by myself.
While I love the extroverted version of myself, I also need my “me time”. It is so important that no matter how much you may or may not enjoy the company of others or meeting new people, you MUST be able to enjoy being with yourself. For me, “me time” is my chance to unwind and recharge. Whether that means going for a run, exploring the world with my dog, Lucy, or simply watching Netflix, I know what works for me. What works for me might not work for you. That is for you to figure out.
I was very lucky to have a great childhood. I played every sport imaginable, went to summer camp at Emma Kaufmann Camp, participated in BBYO and continued to learn valuable life-skills when I attended Ohio University where I played on the men’s lacrosse team and was a brother of Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. I graduated in 2013 and took my career on quite the path to get me to where I am today. If you aren’t familiar with my story, check out my first blog post, “Why I Decided To Build My Own Business”.
One thing is constant when I think back to what got me to where I am right now, my mentors. There is a small handful of people who I became close with at various points in life who have guided me through many of life’s peaks and valleys. I don’t need to name names because those people know who they are. Some of them are more than twice my age, others aren’t much older than me. There is no defined guideline that sets the rules of who can be a mentor. It all depends on your wants, needs and what your definition of success is.
Why is it so important to have a mentor and be a mentee? Without having someone on the other end of a call, text or even having someone to proofread an email could make things a bit more difficult. The value I most greatly appreciate from my mentors is having someone who I know can provide me with their genuine, honest opinion on things, even when they might be telling me something I don’t want to hear. I value my mentors for praising my high’s and I value them even more for providing me with constructive criticism when I need it the most.
You need to have people in your corner who are going to tell you what you need to hear, guide you when necessary and tell you when you need to step up your game. The people in my life I consider to be mentors come from all points of life and have been those who I was able to build a genuine, organic relationship with. These aren’t people who I have actively approached only because I wanted them to be my mentor, but they have been successful in their own paths and expressed an interest in me as well. Naturally, we’ve built a relationship of support, openness and trust that over time grew into a mentor/mentee relationship. I have also come across many on social media who offer their advice to the world, actively looking to be someone’s mentor or mentee. Those types of people exist as well and they should be commended for offering themselves to assist others. Again, there are no rules to define who can and can’t be a mentor. It needs to be what works for you.
I strongly value mentor/mentee relationships and I believe that my value stems from my experiences after spending 16 summers at Emma Kaufmann Camp. I’ll discuss my camp experience in a future blog post about how camp counselors are the best job candidates in the world, but I’ll save that for now. Going to camp, you are essentially forced into a mentor/mentee relationship with your counselors and peers. I went to camp for the first time at 7-years-old. Thanks to 16 amazing summers at camp, I found a handful of my mentors that have helped me so much in life. I also like to believe I have become a mentor to many of my former campers and staff members who I had the opportunity to supervise. Camp is a special place for these types of relationships but the same could be said with sports teams, religious spaces, schools and more.
If you’ve made it this far, I ask one favor. Share or tag your mentors in this post. Let them know how much you appreciate their existence. Want to be a good mentee? Don’t just expect your mentor to do the work for you and don’t expect them to read your mind. You need to be able to tell your mentor anything and everything without judgement on either end. If you can’t do that, they might not be the best fit for you as a “mentor”. If you don’t have a mentor or just aren’t sure, send me a message and we can walk through a few steps to help you find that person.
I launched Andrew Exler Consulting 3 weeks ago today. I would not have made it this far without my mentors.
Let your mentors know how much you appreciate them. It will help you in the long-run. That is a guarantee.
- Andrew