As we dive further down the rabbit hole of one of the most powerful tools for creating success in life, lets focus in today on the two types of mentoring. First, in any mentoring relationship there are two individuals, the mentor(teacher) and the protege(student). One of the greatest mistakes leaders make is attempting to become the mentor when they've never been the protege. This is like the story in the Bible where the man builds his house on sand. Without the foundation the house blew over in the storm. As for you, without being the protege first, and making the investment, you will not succeed in a mentor. as the old saying goes, "a river can not rise above its source" and in this case, how can I mentor when I've never been mentored?
The origins of mentoring: The term mentor originates in Homer's Odyssey. Odysseus, king of Ithaca, fights in the Trojan war and entrusts the care of his house and son to Mentor, who serves as a teacher and overseer of Odysseus' family. In Biblical terms, the mentoring relationship occurs between father and son or daughter. The question to ask, if you were like me, what do you do if you don't have a father or mother that is capable in the realm of success and financial freedom to mentor you. In the case of my parents, even though they love me, they haven't achieved financial freedom, so how can they teach it? If this is your situation, you'll need to do what I did and that is to find a mentor. The good news is that there is no shortage of mentors. The rule that applies here is that "when the student is ready, the teachenship appears". The key is for you as the student to be ready, and you will find the mentor. This is the ultimate example of the law of attraction at work.
Two types of mentoring:
1. Direct. This is the most powerful of mentoring relationships. It involves a direct, one on one relationship. If you are fortunate enough to find a direct mentor, you are a truly blessed person. The direct mentoring relationship is one of the deepest, most satisfying relationships in life. For me, the relationship I have with my direct mentors have been PRICELESS. Later, we will discuss more of how to be a direct protege, but for todays lesson, lets make sure we get the what each type of mentoring is.
2. Mentoring from afar. This is mentoring between two people where the protege knows and studies the mentor through the mentors works and through modeling. This is also a very powerful form of mentoring, and the most likely place you as a protege will begin. We mentor from afar through books, CDs, blogs, as well as through modeling-which is watching someone in action.
For me personally, I'm directly mentoring 2 individuals, which I have found to be close to the max i am able to effectively handle at any given time. I might be able to handle a third, but that is it. The good news is that if I do my job as a mentor, my 2 should in turn mentor their 2 and beyond. My personal mentor is mentored by the legendary author on leadership, John Maxwell. However, Brad did not meet John for over 10 years after he began studying John's materials. This didn't slow Brad down. he literally devoured every CD, book, tape, seminar of John's he could get his hands on. There have been times I have wondered who knows the material better, Brad or John. That is how much Brad has absorbed John's material. The point is this: if you can't mentor from afar you'd never make it in a direct mentoring relationship. It never fails at every seminar I do, I have a member of the audience approach me and ask that I mentor them. When I give them assignments to begin mentoring from afar, they do what I ask for a few days, sometimes a couple of weeks, then I never hear from them again. This type of person doesn't want to be mentored, they want a shortcut. A quick fix to success. The only overnight success stories I know became that way after years of hard work.
The greatest mentor to ever live:
Regardless of your religious belief, if you desire to learn about real mentoring, study the new testament story of Jesus and his disciples. This is the greatest mentoring story ever told. Jesus took 12 men, of average ability, and through those 12 men has built an organization of 1/3 of the world's population that has survived(and is still thriving) 2,000 years after He left the Earth. If thats not a great example of mentoring, i don't know what is! Later, I will share more with you from my private mentoring journal about Jesus and his mentoring style.
The question of importance today is this: for 2010, who is/are going to be my mentors? If you truly desire financial freedom, to be a millionaire and have what life has to offer, start with three of my mentors from afar: Jim Rohn, John Maxwell & Robert Kiyosaki. Get your hands on everything they have. Devour it. Soak it up. (I've been known to put ketchup and mustard on them all :)!)
As well, if you want to know more about what you can do, get to Atlanta this weekend for the HMG Millionaire Tour. There, for 4 hours, 3 speakers who have collectively made $32,000,000 and taught countless numbers of others to achieve six figure residual incomes, will teach 3 topics that I can promise you will change your life. See my Facebook fan page for details or click here:
One other quick point, if we're friends on Facebook and you want to continue getting the "good stuff" join the fan page where I am going to continue to direct my training and mentoring information to and away from my personal page.
Finally, stay plugged into the P. Diet and share it with others. You can't outgive the giver. I invite you to plug your friends and colleagues in.
You are AWESOME!!!
Steven
