Be humble and willing to learn

[tongyun]

We've all heard the old saying, "don't reinvent the wheel", but how many of us have done that throughout our lives? The key here is to look for mentors who are willing to help and guide you through the business development process so you don't waste unnecessary time. You can always learn from a mentor if you choose to be humble and attentive.

[Fergal]

Have you any specific suggestions on how to identify and recruit a mentor?

Do you have a mentor yourself and what do you gain from the relationship?

[Nazreen]

I also had a mentor when I was starting out as a financial adviser. I think that the best advice that he has given me was, "Don't believe everything I say to be true. I'm still human and can make mistakes.". This is what he always stressed and I should always double-check to see if what he said is correct or not. Some business organizations assign mentors to it's new staff while some don't. For myself, he started to help me and a colleague when he saw that we were both struggling in our sales.

Don't reinvent the wheel is a good saying. Thanks for sharing this with us tongyun. Irregardless of your industry, there already exists a collective body of knowledge. We don't have to start from scratch and we can already learn from mentors. In the absence of mentors, we can also look this knowledge up in the internet or in books.

[tongyun]

The way I met my mentor was at a meeting of business owners who were in the frozen food industry, the field that I'm trying to enter. They invited me and my wife to meet with them and go over the idea that I had. The primary benefit from this relationship is that their business is USDA approved and I could piggback my business off theirs.

[Fergal]

Tongyun, it sounds like you got great support from that group. Can I presume that even though you are in the same industry as them, that you are not competing with them directly?

[tongyun]

Fergal, I'm in the same industry as my mentor but my product will not compete with them. Their main product is meat pies, specifically Australian meat pies and my is a line of frozen Chinese foods. My mentors are Japanese and I'm Chinese - they sell Australian meat pies. How's that for an international flair? :)

[Fergal]

We live in a global business world, that's for sure. It's excellent that you have found mentors with experience in your industry who are willing to share their knowledge with you, because you don't compete with them directly.

[deepak_sharma]

Your attitude towards learining is very much important as it will help both your mentor and you. If your mentor thinks that you are not intrested in learning then his efficiency would also go down and viceversa..