Nobody wants to fail. Not
really.
You may have seen self-help books
and motivational programs that talk about failing your way to the top. They
can’t be taken at face value. Failing your way through anything means failure,
not success.
There’s a fallacy that “failure is
fertilizer.” If that’s true, then a pile of failures is really just a pile of,
well, manure.
While it’s true that nobody seeks to
fail, the aim is to lose the fear of failure itself—to look on it as feedback,
not as an ultimate destination, as some might suggest. Losing the fear of
failure is greatly empowering, certainly. Learning from failure results in
wisdom.
Serving
Up Your Own Slice of Life
We all love the benefits of the
wisdom that failure brings. And the best kind of wisdom is gleaned by learning
from the experience of others as Sir Isaac Newton put it, “by standing on the
shoulders of giants.”
Learning from the failures of others
means leverage.
But is there a better way?
The mentor-protégé relationship offers
leverage, like a fast-track, to meet your goals. It concentrates the wisdom of
previous generations into a single experience.
For a protégé, having a mentor means
a chance to explore activities and philosophies that might not be available to
their colleagues. It means they have a shortcut to success.
By working with a mentor, a protégé
can reap the benefit of a guided look into your rarefied expertise. You can
help define their career path, especially if you’re in an industry that’s
sprawling with opportunities, or offers a variety of options for
specialization.
5
Benefits for Protégés
There are obvious and not-so-obvious
advantages for seeking out a mentor. When you consider what these benefits are,
you can define the relationship more successfully and decide the most
intelligent areas for concentrating your efforts with a mentor.
- Knowledge – The most obvious and tangible benefit for a protégé is the practical knowledge you can gain. A mentoring program offers the chance to gain hands-on experience in a field. In every industry, there is a learning curve between training and practice. As a mentor, you can help a protégé avoid many of the pitfalls that plague most people when they’re starting out.
- Safe Learning Environment – For those just entering the workforce, pressures and competition come from all sides. It’s easy for anyone to stumble when faced with this kind of pressure, especially if that competition comes from more seasoned personnel. A protégé earns a certain degree of relief from the strain of being a novice in the industry. Having a little extra horsepower in your corner adds job security, which is a powerful motivator to aim higher.
- More Confidence – A mentor’s support and reassurance help you flourish. You don’t have to go it alone. Sometimes simply knowing that support is available is enough to offer encouragement, correct mistakes and boost confidence.
- Clear Path to Success – Protégés naturally want to live up to expectations. Some people call this the Law of Reciprocity. With a well-defined mentoring relationship, you are building a clear path for yourself. In any industry, the career track is paved with pitfalls. Teaming with a mentor means a protégé can bypass some pitfalls and stay focused on performance.
- Relationships – In business, advancement is often more about who you know than what you know. A supportive word or recommendation from your mentor can open doors that you might never have known existed. Through the networking opportunities provided by a mentor, the talented protégé can meet professionals who are influential in your career. The chance for networking and referrals can make all the difference.
It’s an incredible feeling when you
know that you’ve been helped by someone else in a way you can never fully
repay. What a great gift to yourself by seeking a mentor. More importantly,
you’ll be getting a precious detour around that dung heap called failure!
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