“How to find your Old Man”
The value of having a mentor in life and business.
Do you have a trusted mentor?
Joey Speers talks about finding your “Old Man” in his podcast Walls to Hurdles, How To Take Action On Your Dreams – 3 Simple Steps episode … funny coming from a guy who is only 20 years old!
People become successful by finding successful people to mentor them. They use these people’s experience to educate themselves on how to reach the same success.
Here’s the thing… who you hang around with is who you become, or so the successful people say.
A mentor is someone you can look to for advice, because these people have been there — they have felt the emotions, they have experienced the challenges and they have dealt with the failure. A mentor can save you a few steps along the way.
When you build a relationship with a mentor, you are asking for advice from someone who has the experience and knowledge to teach you something you did not know. Your mentor can help you gain clarity about your goals (Joey calls this “declaring your ambition”), provide you with feedback and motivate you to move forward, no matter how uncomfortable that is.
In this episode of Joey’s podcast, he refers to a mentor as an “Old Man”… someone wiser, more experienced and educated on what you are trying to achieve. He suggests you find your own “Old Man“!
I prefer to refer to my mentor as “Wise Women” or “Wise One”, and you can come up with your own term of respect when you find yours.
Now that you have declared your ambition and have put out to the world what you want to achieve, you need to find the person or people who have already successfully achieved this goal.
So, how do you find a mentor? It’s not like they are walking around with a sign on their chest that says “Old Man/Wise Women ready to mentor!”
Your mentor (and you can have more than one) can be found in several places. In fact, you have likely already started your journey to finding a mentor via the books you read, the podcasts you listen to and the YouTube channels you watch. The people who influence you are part of your mentoring journey. But if you are anything like me, you want that person in the flesh, and I am pretty sure that my teeny tiny budget won’t cover the cost to get Tony Robbins or Rachel Hollis to my front door.
So, put it out there to your network that you are looking for a mentor. Describe the kind of person you are looking for and how you want them to help you. Reach out to people you know have already achieved the same (or similar) goal you are trying to achieve. Invite them to mentor you. Being asked to mentor someone is a pretty big compliment, and chances are they will not turn down the opportunity. They likely had a mentor of their own, so they know how important the job is.
Use your intuition to guide you. Study these people, their values and beliefs — if they align with yours, chances are they are the right fit for you. Finding your “Old Man or Wise Women” may take time, patience and persistence, but it will be worth it.
Enjoy your journey, enjoy the time you spend with your mentor, because one day, you will likely be asked the same question you are asking now… Will you be my mentor?
Are you ready to find a mentor? I struggled with this at first, but with the help of my community, I aligned myself with some amazing people. I’d love to help you find your “Old Man or Wise Women“.
